Southern States Layer Breeder VS Agway Hearty Hen VS Nutrena Nature Wise Layer

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darkbrahmamama

darkbrahmamama

Chirping
6 Years
Apr 22, 2013
255
9
93
I have been feeding Southern States layer/breeder crumbles & Agways hearty hen pellets for a while. Now, I have the option to buy Nutrenas Nature Wise lay feed for my flock. I like that all contain the marigold extract, but I do wish that at least one of them contained animal protein. The hearty hen is soy free, but in all honesty, that doesn't really matter to us. I don't see any pros vs cons in feeding them a soy free food, I just liked the higher protein & marigold.

From what I see, they all seem very similar in ingredients as well as analysis. I was wondering what others opinions are? What do you think are pros vs cons? I like to feed crumbles of one, & pellets of another to give them their choice.

Thanks in advance!
 
For a while I was feeding a feed that was pretty good, but had no animal protein in it. So I bought a bag of Fertrell fish meal and supplemented the feed with it. It worked great. I think I used a ratio of 5% fish meal. We switched feeds to one that already has fish meal and I am slowly using up the extra fish meal.
 
For the better part of a year, I have been looking for a feed that contains animal protein. If you find any, please post and let me know. Southern States and Nutrena do NOT contain animal protein.

DF
 
dfalchek, Nutrena Country Feed All Flock and DuMor Layer have animal protein listed. There are probably others, those are just the two that I've seen.
 
Soylent Chick said:
dfalchek, Nutrena Country Feed All Flock and DuMor Layer have animal protein listed. There are probably others, those are just the two that I've seen.
Click to expand...

I have read Dumor tags in three states and never, ever, saw animal protein listed as an ingredient. All Dumor brands are widely touted for being all-grain, all-vegetarian, meat-free on other treads, as we speak. . Please post a picture of your Dumor tags that show animal protein as an ingredient. Let's see some evidence.
 
That's interesting. Must be regional. I understand Purina produces Dumor as a private label. BSE and the demands of people wanting raise "organic" or "vegetarian" chickens force most meat by-prorduct out of all feed. I'll recheck Dumor. In the meantime I found a local mill, FM Brown that producers a meat by product containing feed. But it is much more difficult to get to than a TS. Thanks for tag shot. DF
 
I have actually started giving my flock cackleberry nugget treats & forage cakes from Farmers Helper for a little animal protein. I haven't been able to find any feed with animal protein. Right now I'm feeding the hearty hen pellets & going on my 3rd bag of nature wise crumbles. I think they're both pretty similar feed & rank the same as the southern states layer breeder line. I actually don't care if they are soy free or not, because I've read that soy isn't bad for chickens. Who knows. I don't know why they can't make chicken feed with animal protein .... they're NOT herbivores! Come molting season I'll probably give them a few handfuls of the barn cats taste of the wild dry food .........
 
A high quality fish-based dog or cat food can be used to give animal protein when otherwise there's only soy protein in pellets or mash. Victor's "VICTOR Yukon River Salmon & Sweet Potato Grain-Free Dry Dog Food" is superb at 33% protein. Kibble is not too large.

If I have a pellet with some fish meal in it, for maintenance I like to add a little Diamond Naturals Small Breed Puppy Chicken and Rice [32% see also Diamond Naturals Small Breed Dog Real Lamb Recipe Premium Dry Dog Food 25%]. This food is nice and small, about the size of a pea. Laying pellets with fish meal include Manna Pro Flock Party at TSC and New Country Organics 17% layer pellets and their 23% grower/gamebird pellet.

Here are two of my breeding rations. I like about 7 parts grain to 3 parts pellets/kibble, and I limit feed:

1.
4 parts Southern States 5 Grain Blend, 38
2 parts oat GROATS, 38
3 NCO 23% pellets, 69
1 Yukon dog, 33
178 /10 = 17.8%

2.
3 parts SS 5 Grain, 28.5
3 parts oat groats, 57
3 NCO 23% pellets, 69
1 Diamond dog, 32
= 18.6%

It's not a lot of dog food in the total mix. Well, 10 percent. The New Country Organics pellets are so high in protein I could go to .5 dog food and finagle the pellets and maybe add some peas. But I think 10 percent is okay. Dog food gives a protein boost and balances protein.
 
dfalchek said:
I have read Dumor tags in three states and never, ever, saw animal protein listed as an ingredient. All Dumor brands are widely touted for being all-grain, all-vegetarian, meat-free on other treads, as we speak. . Please post a picture of your Dumor tags that show animal protein as an ingredient. Let's see some evidence.
Click to expand...

I recently checked Dumor's chick starter in 20 and 24% here in VA and both listed animal protein. I do not think their laying rations had it.
 

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