The Mazuri Team
The Mazuri Team
Purina Mills started in St. Louis in 1894 selling mule feed to settlers moving west across America. Perhaps Purina Mills is better known to fish farmers for its Trout Chow and Catfish Chow. The company split from Ralston Purina in 1986, and was purchased by BP Nutrition. Most folks in the US think of BP as petroleum products, but BP brought with it an international expertise in zoo animal nutrition. With the combined strengths of BP and Purina, the Mazuri group was formed in 1989 to develop feeds for exotic animals. No longer associated with BP, Purina Mills is now part of Land O’Lakes, Inc. Karen Wright, an 18-year Purina veteran, has been working with the Mazuri brand since the beginning, with David Salmon, Karen’s counterpart in the West and PhD Nutritionist Mark Griffin leading the team. Today, Purina/Mazuri produces over 100 diets for unusual species from Aardvarks to Zebras.
There is a huge difference in producing feeds for animals that are being raised for a short period for food, and animals that are being kept as pets for long term enjoyment and companionship. Mazuri Aquatic Gel Diets are used by many large aquariums throughout the world, and are provided in different formulas for herbivores, carnivores and omnivores like Koi. To develop their Koi food, Purina/Mazuri started with data from other fish omnivores and did detailed research into the specific dietary demands of Koi. Mazuri Koi food was extensively tested, and the first variety was released in 1995. There are currently 3 different formulas of Koi food in the Mazuri product line, and the Platinum series is available in several sizes.
Because Mazuri is international and part of a large company (the largest animal nutrition company in the world), they are subject to all government regulations, and each claim on a product label must be scientifically proven. Many other companies producing Koi food are not subject to this level of scrutiny, and can make unsubstantiated claims, or claims from their own testing. Mazuri Koi feeds are produced in Indiana in their drug-free specialty mill, which complies with ISO 9002 international quality guidelines for manufacturing. Each bag of food contains a code date detailing production, and more importantly, the date it was produced. Buyers always know if the food is fresh!
Each feed is developed with a different goal in mind. High fat feed can be very digestible (small amounts of waste), but can cause long-term health problems such as obesity, and it easily becomes rancid. High vegetable content can create high waste. Mazuri feeds are developed to be complete diets for the long term. Each feed is developed to be the primary diet of the Koi, and is not meant to be combined with other feeds. When the diet is heavily “diluted” with other food, nutritional deficits/imbalances can occur. Or many additions to the primary diet over time may lead to “diet drift”, causing imbalances in nutrition that stress the Koi, and can lead to disease. Mazuri recommends that owners never dilute a complete Koi food with more than 20-25% with other foods, or the benefits of the complete and balanced diet will be lost.
Mazuri Koi diet are all created by an extrusion process, which uses the starch component to puff the cooked feed so that it will float. Koi keepers are still concerned with any corn in Koi food, because old information suggested that it was indigestible by Koi. That information has been revised, and corn is acceptable as a feed ingredient, although a commercial catfish feed would be a problem for Koi as it is designed for rapid growth for least cost production. Mazuri only uses corn to provide the starch component for their Koi feeds. They have done extensive research on the effect of heat from the extrusion process, and know that their vitamins are still effective after the product has been manufactured.
Pink Koi are often seen at Koi shows, and are the result of too much color-enhancing food. Mazuri has worked very hard on their color-enhancing attributes of their Koi food. Koi are relatively easy, as their primary colors are red, white, yellow and black, with some blues. However, the vibrant tropical fish that are seen in public aquariums can require a much more complicated feeding strategy. Experience with the multitude of colorful species in large commercial aquariums has aided Mazuri’s knowledge of using pigments for coloration. Koi fed only on the Mazuri diets will not turn pink unless their diet is amended by feeding lots of treats like shrimp, or Spirulina (an algae). Because Koi are kept as pets, owners often love them too much, and cause nutritional problems from overfeeding and constantly enhancing the food which dilutes the nutritional strategy developed from the research.
Temperature and humidity are the enemies of all Koi feeds. Many of the essential vitamins in Koi feed can be destroyed by extreme heat. Food should always be stored at moderate temperature and humidity. Mazuri foods have a 9-month shelf life. Tests done on Mazuri Koi food shows that their stabilized Vitamin C will still be at 88% of formulated concentration when stored for 6 months at 100 degrees! Obviously, all Koi owners should make a special effort to keep their feeds in better conditions. Refrigerators are too humid, and freezing Koi food can cause freezer burn and/or ice crystals that will dampen the food when it thaws. Food that has become moist can quickly mold or mildew, and be very harmful to the fish.
Excellent Koi food starts with excellent ingredients. But even the best ingredients change a bit from day to day. Mazuri food is produced from a consistent formula, but also with an eye to what the final outcome must be, so that each individual batch is “tweaked” to produce the end result desired. It is this consistency that is so valuable for maintaining optimal Koi health. Mazuri food can be counted on to contain the total amount of nutrients necessary for healthy Koi. Their foods do not tout immune enhancing substances, because these substances do not pass government standards for efficacy. When new research becomes available, Mazuri can quickly incorporate improvements into their Koi feed, so buyers can be assured of getting the best food available.