Vitamins are catalysts for biochemical reactions and metabolism in animals and are essential micronutrients for maintaining normal physiological functions and supporting healthy growth and development. A deficiency in vitamins can lead to significant adverse effects on an animal's growth and development. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement vitamins in daily feed to meet the body's needs.

1. Determining Vitamin Feed Standards: Vitamin feeding standards refer to the required amounts of various vitamins for animals. The NRC (National Research Council) standard represents the minimum vitamin requirements necessary to prevent obvious vitamin deficiencies. On the other hand, the optimal vitamin requirements established by specialized manufacturers, such as Roche, aim to achieve the best health and production performance in animals. These optimal requirements are generally several times higher than the NRC standards. When designing and applying vitamin supplements, it is important to set feeding standards reasonably, typically higher than NRC standards. When possible, the Roche optimal requirement standard can be used. Factors such as feed type, animal health status, feeding environment, formula cost, and storage time should be considered to flexibly and scientifically meet the maximum vitamin needs for animal growth and development. Vitamin levels in feed should be increased for animals under stress.

2. Appropriate Over-Supplementation: Most vitamins are not highly stable and may degrade during feed processing and storage. To ensure that animals receive adequate vitamins, it is generally necessary to add an excess amount.

3. Selecting Vitamin Preparations: Currently, vitamin preparations include single vitamins and multivitamin premixes. The choice between mixing multiple single vitamins or purchasing multivitamin premixes depends on the specific situation. Smaller production units tend to use multivitamin premixes. Since vitamin testing and quality assessment are complex, it is advisable to select products from reputable professional manufacturers.

4. Paying Attention to Vitamin Content, Potency, and Stability: Most commercially available vitamins are not pure or 100% potent. Therefore, when purchasing and using vitamins, it is important to consider their effective content and potency and adjust calculations accordingly. The stability of different forms of the same vitamin can vary. For example, vitamin A palmitate is more stable than vitamin A alcohol, and vitamin E acetate is more stable than vitamin E alcohol. Therefore, it is preferable to use stable forms of vitamins in practice.

5. Independent Addition of Choline and Vitamin C: Choline and vitamin C are prone to absorbing moisture and can degrade other vitamins, so they are generally not premixed with other vitamins. Instead, they should be added separately at the time of use. Most commercial multivitamin preparations do not contain choline and vitamin C, so when using these preparations, be sure to independently add appropriate amounts of choline and vitamin C according to feeding standards.

6. Flexible Adjustments Based on Actual Conditions: Vitamin feeding standards should not be rigid but should be adjusted flexibly based on factors such as actual formula types, feeding environment, weather, and seasons to ensure that animals meet their vitamin needs and maintain good health and production performance. For example, laying hens fed with high calcium and phosphorus feed should have increased levels of vitamins A and D to enhance calcium and phosphorus absorption and utilization.

7. Necessary Dilution and Storage: Due to the small amounts of vitamins used and the potential reactions between vitamins and other additives that could reduce efficacy, it is best to dilute vitamins to a larger ratio to lower concentration before premixing with other vitamins and additives. This is especially important when premixing with choline, trace elements, and acidic or alkaline additives to ensure good mixing uniformity and high potency. The carrier commonly used for vitamin dilution and premixing is defatted corn starch. Vitamin products are sensitive to external factors such as light and heat, which can lead to degradation. Therefore, they should be stored in a cool, sealed, and dry environment. Once opened, they should be used quickly, and the storage period should not exceed one month.