Why is Purina feed "bad"?

kudos minidonkeymom, monsanto is literally killing us, and we don't care! weird. I see a rising tide coming against Monsanto though, and welcome it.

Sorry, I did not read the whole 10 pages, and hopefully somebody already "enlightened" you, why "Purina" =poison.
May be "poison" is a too strong word, but I will sign under it.
Purina contains GMO corn and soy. This is "american experiment" when they invade DNA of corn or soy seeds with "Round up" and other "things" to make it insect-resisting.
European countries forbid American GMO corn and soy because they believe it might be harmful in the long run. America got "sicker" when the "experiment" was done on it. Watch "Genetic roulette" documentary - your eyes will open then. You will think twice before buying "Purina" or anything with GMO in it(our supermarkets FULL of GMO produce which is totally forbidden to sell in Europe and other places of the world).

the purina 'garden recipes' are being sold at petco now. my wife has been feeding this to the rabbits for a year and they never get tired of it and eat every bit. this is the only food that they are excited to eat. my purina dog food has no gmo corn. it is chicken and brown rice and the dogs do very well on it.

Purina pet foods & Purina chicken food are two different companies.

#1) I never saw an answer to the question another poster posed, which was about potentially feeding dog kibble to chickens. I know I specifically buy dog food for my dog, which does NOT contain corn, as corn is undigestible (or less so) by dogs, and my lamb/rice formula she eats produces noticably fewer poops per day than the corn food. So, it seems like she's using more of her food and pooping out less of it. The cheaper dog foods, though, mostly have corn as their main ingredient as it's cheap filler. But it sounds like a reasonable idea then that it might be at least okay for chickens. I've never seen dog food small enough bits to compare it to pellets or crumbles, though. Are you planning on running it through a food processor? Maybe the birds have no problem pecking it into smaller bits??
#2) My husband is refusing to let me get my chickens until I have "done my research" on what feed is going to cost us. *ugh! just get me the silly chicks already and hush up, Hubby!* So...If I have a flock of 6 heavy breed birds (just estimating on the high end, don't actually know which breeds I'll end up with), how many pounds of feed could I reasonably expect them to consume on average per month. I know it will vary with the season by a bit, and I do plan to let them forage as much as possible, but FOR THE SAKE OF MATH, let's assume they eat nothing but feed (I like crumbles, I think). Then about how many pounds of feed should I budget for? I know I'll have to shop around after that for which brand I want to use.

the cost of chicken feed is like chicken feed.... unless your birds are lacking in protein, give the dog food to dogs.

Natalijaasbj said:

Sorry, I did not read the whole 10 pages, and hopefully somebody already "enlightened" you, why "Purina" =poison.
 May be "poison" is a too strong word, but I will sign under it.
 Purina contains GMO corn and soy. This is "american experiment" when they invade DNA of corn or soy seeds with "Round up" and other "things" to make it insect-resisting. 
 European countries forbid American GMO corn and soy because they believe it might be harmful in the long run. America got "sicker" when the "experiment" was done on it. Watch "Genetic roulette" documentary - your eyes will open then. You will think twice before buying "Purina" or anything with GMO in it(our supermarkets FULL  of GMO produce which is totally forbidden to sell in Europe and other places of the world).

Click to expand...

I have not read all 10 pages either.... But would you be so kind as to share the names of some Non-GMO feeds?

I'm new to chickens.. My chicks are 5wks old and in my rush to get going on chickens I didn't even consider much regarding their feed. I thought I was doing good to feed them non medicated feed.... But wouldn't you know I've got the Purina Sunfresh Start and Grow brand.

Are there safe brands out there that are affordable?

I haven't read all 10 pages either, but I can tell you my experience with purina feeds for my horses, dog and multiple cats: I fed purina for years- strategy for the horses and a variety of different purina ones of the others. My dog, always healthy and hardy mixed breed rescue, starting scratching and scratching and scratching when she was about 7 years. Vet couldn't find anything wrong, nothing topical worked. In frustration, starting doing my own research and found the dog allergy information that is all over the Internet. Immediately switched to 'no grains' no preservatives, etc. type dog foods. BAM! Scratching completely stopped. My husband wasn't entirely convinced, thought it might be coincidence. So, after a while, we switched her back. Poor baby. Within 2-3 days scratching started back up, this time with a vengeance. Immediately put her back on the grain free, natural food and scratching again stopped. She hasn't been on anything else since and the scratching has never returned. I feel so bad about the 2 yrs or so she suffered before we figured it out.

The cats, that is a different story. Cats, they just throw up quite often don't they? Well actually they don't. Switched off purina cat food and suddenly there were no more (or very few) spots of cat vomit on the floor. After a few months, we all noticed how much better all the cats fur was- much softer, shinier and not shedding as much.

Then, when gas went up, purina raised the price of purina strategy horse feed from $12 per 50# bag to almost $18 per bag. Multiply that by 4 horses and that was the end of that.

When I got my first chickens, the last thing I think I'll want to buy is purina.

kellieetal said:

#1) I never saw an answer to the question another poster posed, which was about potentially feeding dog kibble to chickens. I know I specifically buy dog food for my dog, which does NOT contain corn, as corn is undigestible (or less so) by dogs, and my lamb/rice formula she eats produces noticably fewer poops per day than the corn food. So, it seems like she's using more of her food and pooping out less of it. The cheaper dog foods, though, mostly have corn as their main ingredient as it's cheap filler. But it sounds like a reasonable idea then that it might be at least okay for chickens. I've never seen dog food small enough bits to compare it to pellets or crumbles, though. Are you planning on running it through a food processor? Maybe the birds have no problem pecking it into smaller bits??
#2) My husband is refusing to let me get my chickens until I have "done my research" on what feed is going to cost us. *ugh! just get me the silly chicks already and hush up, Hubby!* So...If I have a flock of 6 heavy breed birds (just estimating on the high end, don't actually know which breeds I'll end up with), how many pounds of feed could I reasonably expect them to consume on average per month. I know it will vary with the season by a bit, and I do plan to let them forage as much as possible, but FOR THE SAKE OF MATH, let's assume they eat nothing but feed (I like crumbles, I think). Then about how many pounds of feed should I budget for? I know I'll have to shop around after that for which brand I want to use.

Click to expand...

I am afraid this varies quite a bit! It depends on the feed used, the amount of time they can forage, the quality of the forage (no disrespect intended to people with manicured lawns, but they are not good fodder for chickens), the variety in the forage (many plant species, insect species, seed types, etc), the breed of the bird, the age of the bird, the sex of the birds, the security of your food, and the time of year.

The type of feed used can be very important for the very reasons you mentioned above-- while chickens do need some roughage, the more nutrition they can get from their feed straight up, the less they will need to eat.

I have seven hens and a 50lb bag of food will last me about two months. I have read here that some people need a 50lb bag of food every two weeks for the same number of hens. As you can see, the difference between two months and two weeks, in terms of cost, is quite a bit!! I do not know the situation of the poster that said they needed 50lbs every two weeks, but I can tell you my situation. I feed Countryside Organics and every bit of it gets eaten by my hens with no waste. If they don't want to eat the powder I just mix a little water in and they scarf it down like it's dessert. The quality of the feed is enough that they seem to eat a lot less of it and yet stay very well filled out and content. I make sure that the chickens are the only animals that can get to the feed-- no mice, no rats, no sparrows, etc. Chickens only! I provide an hour or two of foraging/ranging in my yard every day that the weather allows it, but that is usually in the evening after they have eaten sporadically through the day anyhow and I don't know how much it actually supplements.
My different breeds seem to eat different amounts of food as well. They also seem to eat more when they are producing more eggs. My cochin rooster used to eat immense amounts of food, he was a big guy.

I know this doesn't really answer your question but I hope it helps you to get closer to an answer.

We were feeding our dog Beneiful made by Purina until my daughter found a forum and there was over 350 complaints about the dog food causing their dogs to die. Kidney failure and all kinds of stuff. They changed their formula back in Sept. of last year and many dogs died and they said on there they wasn't doing anything about it. I think our small town still had food from the old batches of food since our dog seemed fine but didn't take a chance with it and changed. You could probably google and find the info. I didn't save it. So I'm not going to feed my chicks any of their foods either. I'd just rather be safe than sorry and plus we're going to be consuming these eggs from them. The site said they were using some kind of chemical in the dog foods that antifreeze is made from. Anyway this is WHY I'm not using their brand.