First Fruit Feed

Although I dont use them all of the time, when I do they have been very kind and helpful. We typically are shopping for horse supplies and are always asked if we need any help. On behalf of First Fruit Feed, I think the long winded review about about their service is unfair and unecessary. They are not veterinary students or «educators». They are in the business of selling supplies. If you know better, then don’t ask. Their prices are competitive and probably even cheaper than places like Bothell Feed. If you are on the fence, check them out for yourself and dont make your decision based on long winded rants.

If you are desperate and don’t want to drive to a real feed store and want to pay 20% over retail for inferior products, this is your place. First, do NOT ask for any advice. These people, and I mean every employee, know NOTHING about farm animal nutrition. If they are out of what you want, they try to sell you just about anything on their shelves telling you it is fine for your animals. Let me give you an example, I went in for livestock feed (all purpose) and they were out as they were the last time I went in. The owner brought me sheep chow for lactating sheep and told me it would be fine for my goats and I explained to him then that the calcium was too high and would make my neutered goats sick with kidney stones. He then tried to sell me «goat hay.» First of all, there is no such thing as «goat hay,» second this hay was so brown and nasty that I would only use it as bedding. Goats need good nutritionally sound green hay just like any other animal.
Two days later, I sent my son in to pick up the food they were out of the first time and a different employee gave my son food for «lactating dairy cows» saying it would be good for my goats, because it said «if could be used for dairy goats «in the fine print on the bag. He did not ask my son if we had dairy goats and assumed that all goats were goats and did not ask if they were female and nursing. My son brought this home and fortunately told be about the change before he fed this to our male, neutered goats. This would have given them kidney stones and could have killed them. I called and let them know that they had no business giving uniformed nutritional advice to customers. The employee did not know what «lactating» meant and was unaware that there were different kinds of goats in the world with different nutritional needs. He said that it said «goat» on the label and that was good enough for him. The owner was also present and didn’t seem to know the difference either.
I wouldn’t bother to write all of this except that this unsolicited, horrible advice seems to be given to customers frequently. Just today, one of our employees stopped by there for goat chow that they were out of and he tried to sell his nasty «goat hay» to her.
I am a licensed wildlife educator, animal sciences instructor, and farm owner. These people have NO business giving any advice to anyone. If you go in, stick to what is on your list and don’t let them potentially harm your animals by selling you something that might make your animals sick. There are other farm stores within a short drive of them. GO THERE. At least you might find someone who knows something about your animals and if they don’t they won’t give you harmful advice and bad products.