Home-Grown no-corn and no-soy layer feed

[raingarden]

I want to learn about poultry nutrition and am confused about why people want a ration without corn or soy. Can someone please enlighten me.

 

[BrukeyBrooke]

I want to learn about poultry nutrition and am confused about why people want a ration without corn or soy. Can someone please enlighten me.

Just came across this thread looking for a no corn, no soy feed for my ducks. My interest is two fold: 1. I am allergic to both corn and soy and wondering if I could tolerate their eggs better if my birds weren’t eating them, and 2. We just made it through a nutrient deficiency that had one of my gals starting to go lame - I’m now reading all I can. Some also say that corn and soy are so mass produced and altered at this point that they don’t really have much nutritional value. They’re more like filler.

 

[raingarden]

Just came across this thread looking for a no corn, no soy feed for my ducks. My interest is two fold: 1. I am allergic to both corn and soy and wondering if I could tolerate their eggs better if my birds weren’t eating them, and 2. We just made it through a nutrient deficiency that had one of my gals starting to go lame - I’m now reading all I can. Some also say that corn and soy are so mass produced and altered at this point that they don’t really have much nutritional value. They’re more like filler.

Corn and soy provide most of the protein, fat and carbohydrates in chicken feed. Corn, soy, wheat and rice provide most of the protein, fat, and carbohydrates in the human diet too, except we westeners also eat a lot of meat protein and fat. If you are not eating corn or soy in your own diet then you could buy extra groceries and feed it to your chickens too.

Formulating a non-corn, non-soy chicken feed could probably be done with oats, braley, sorgham, sunflower, meat or fish and stuff like. The hurdle is to get enough demand for such a thing to make it worthwhile to manufacture. The price is going to be way up there so it would be difficut to sell to most people.

 

[BrukeyBrooke]

Corn and soy provide most of the protein, fat and carbohydrates in chicken feed. Corn, soy, wheat and rice provide most of the protein, fat, and carbohydrates in the human diet too, except we westeners also eat a lot of meat protein and fat. If you are not eating corn or soy in your own diet then you could buy extra groceries and feed it to your chickens too.

Formulating a non-corn, non-soy chicken feed could probably be done with oats, braley, sorgham, sunflower, meat or fish and stuff like. The hurdle is to get enough demand for such a thing to make it worthwhile to manufacture. The price is going to be way up there so it would be difficut to sell to most people.

In talking to our new vet the other day, his comment was about how different feed is versus what a wild duck would eat. I’m not judging or claiming to know much of anything, just asking and reading to see what the options are.

 

[raingarden]

A wild dabbling duck that happened upon a bowl of duck chow would consider it a windfall and would enjoy it very much. They scrape and forage for seeds, other vegetation and invertebrates because they have to. The question becomes which is better for their long term health. Poultry scientists know some things about this, but probably not everything.

The life span of a domestic duck is usually eight to ten years; but they can sometimes live up to twenty years. A wild mallard can also live up to twenty years but the overall average is closer to three years. The difference is determined by many factors besides diet.

Perhaps the best thing you can do for a pet duck is to give it a very large space and habitat where it can forage naturally, but keep the duck chow available in case they need it.