Du-mor or don't du-mor

[Birdielee]

Hi! My hen ate dumor layer crumbles with her former owner. And scraps, scratch grains, etc. I bought her organic dumor layer crumbles and she'd rather eat anything else. I don't think it smells too good. I think it's old. The manufacture date is printed on the bag but it's smeared.
I also bought organic dumor grower crumbles at the same time. Both were on sale. Or clearance. It smells better to me than the other, so I switched to feeding her that. She's still not into it.
I toss rolled oats, oil sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and barley in her run for her, too. She will eat up the crushed eggshells, but isn't interested in eating the crumbles.
I figure I'll get pellets next time. Organic is good, non GMO may be enough for me.

Any suggestions?

 

[Chickassan]

Kalmbach, it smells so good you would eat it.
And don't do pellets, chickens hate food shape change, btw they sell kalmbach on chewy.com

 

[Birdielee]

Ok. She hates her food in general. But loves the seeds and grains

 

[Birdielee]

Thank you. Ill check it out

 

[pibb]

I had the same experience as you with Dumor brand. I thought maybe I was the only one. Try any chick feed besides Dumor and save the seeds for treats. Dumor is also too expensive in my opinion.

I'm not much on paying more for "organic" stuff but I think Purina Flock Raiser was probably the best formulated feed I have given, but it got to were the price went up everytime I bought another bag and it also had way too much powder in it so I changed brands. I haven't had any troubles freeding chickens with any other brand other than Dumor.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you ever have feed that looks or smells off, don't feed it. That said, you're offering a lot of tasty treats besides the food, so doesn't surprise me that she'd rather eat the treats.

 

[Birdielee]

Thank you, all. Well, I'm figuring if she doesn't eat the dumor, she needs to eat something. And she's happy with the bugs she finds, and plenty of violet leaves, raspberry leaves, and others. And eggshells. I figured what she's missing is some carbs. But I need to find some sustainable diet. Besides, i read that without layer feed, shed likely get unbalanced in something and start laying fewer eggs

 

[Birdielee]

So, are grains "tasty treats"? The feed i have is mostly just corn and soybeans with supplements. It has wheat middlings, but I'm not too sure what part of a seed they call a middling. I'll have to look that up.

 

[rosemarythyme]

So, are grains "tasty treats"? The feed i have is mostly just corn and soybeans with supplements. It has wheat middlings, but I'm not too sure what part of a seed they call a middling. I'll have to look that up.

Depends on what, if anything, is added. The difference between grain scratch and grain feeds really is the balancing of nutritional components and added vitamins, mineral, protein, etc/

 

[Birdielee]

Ok. I understand the adding of the supplements. What about the soybeans? Is that just to add protein? Non-bug protein?

And What's the deal with fermenting the feed? Just wet it and let it sit out overnight?