Hi everyone,
I went to the feed store to find something that might help my girls get through their molt. They're miserable and if they're unhappy, I'm usually unhappy along with them. I left with some electrolytes and a bag of local milled feed that's different from my usual.
I've been feeding my girls Flock Raiser for over a year and for the most part, I'm pretty happy with it. There are a couple of things about it that annoy me though.
First is the fact that I can only get it in crumble and at the end of the day there's about a quarter of an inch of "dust" at the bottom of the feeder and I have one chicken who sneezes up a storm when she eats it. I usually end up throwing the dust away a couple of times during the week, so there's a bit of food waste. Also, there's quite of bit of corn in it, visible to the naked eye as corn.
Second is the nature of the protein. Even though Flock Raiser is 20% protein, it's all from plants; no meat. Just because something is a certain amount of protein doesn't mean that it's digestible protein. (As an example given to me by someone else: Due to lack of regulation in dog food labeling, a certain brand of dog food manufacturer can grind up leather into dog food and call it animal protein but the dog gets no nutritional value in it.) I'm not sure that soy is well digested.
This local feed stores carries it's own brand of layer food that has both animal and plant protein but is only 16% protein. It's in pellet form, smaller than Flock Raiser and I anticipate little waste.
Right now, I'm just giving them a handful of the new stuff for scratch in the evening and mixing a little in their food. I give meat, eggs, yogurt, and electrolytes as well to help them get their new feathers.
Anyway, I was wondering if it would make sense to give them a feed with animal protein even if the percentage is less now that they're a bit older (18 months)? They like Flock Raiser and so do I but is it really the best form of protein?
Would a feed with animal protein afford them more nutritional value even if it has less protein percentage-wise because the protein comes from meat?
Mary
(Yes, I'm wordy, sigh. Sorry.)
I went to the feed store to find something that might help my girls get through their molt. They're miserable and if they're unhappy, I'm usually unhappy along with them. I left with some electrolytes and a bag of local milled feed that's different from my usual.
I've been feeding my girls Flock Raiser for over a year and for the most part, I'm pretty happy with it. There are a couple of things about it that annoy me though.
First is the fact that I can only get it in crumble and at the end of the day there's about a quarter of an inch of "dust" at the bottom of the feeder and I have one chicken who sneezes up a storm when she eats it. I usually end up throwing the dust away a couple of times during the week, so there's a bit of food waste. Also, there's quite of bit of corn in it, visible to the naked eye as corn.
Second is the nature of the protein. Even though Flock Raiser is 20% protein, it's all from plants; no meat. Just because something is a certain amount of protein doesn't mean that it's digestible protein. (As an example given to me by someone else: Due to lack of regulation in dog food labeling, a certain brand of dog food manufacturer can grind up leather into dog food and call it animal protein but the dog gets no nutritional value in it.) I'm not sure that soy is well digested.
This local feed stores carries it's own brand of layer food that has both animal and plant protein but is only 16% protein. It's in pellet form, smaller than Flock Raiser and I anticipate little waste.
Right now, I'm just giving them a handful of the new stuff for scratch in the evening and mixing a little in their food. I give meat, eggs, yogurt, and electrolytes as well to help them get their new feathers.
Anyway, I was wondering if it would make sense to give them a feed with animal protein even if the percentage is less now that they're a bit older (18 months)? They like Flock Raiser and so do I but is it really the best form of protein?
Would a feed with animal protein afford them more nutritional value even if it has less protein percentage-wise because the protein comes from meat?
Mary
(Yes, I'm wordy, sigh. Sorry.)
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