Gidday:
You can easily make a feed mix that you can feed to everything. It's all about protein: ducks and chickens need a minimum of 16-18%, pheasants and other game birds 22%, day old chicks of pheasants 28%
the rest is whatever is available: cracked corn, wheat, oats, barley, wheat, triticale, rye, rice, buckwheat, peas, sorghum, alfalfa pellets (rabbit food) etc. Omega 3 eggs from a grocery store is nothin but chicken feed with flax added. In asia birds are fed rice and soybean. if people can eat it birds can eat it, including berries, vegetable scraps, greens (grass, dandelion, etc.) In the wild they eat wild grains and seeds from plants we consider weeds.
Cat food is also fed by some to birds (it's 45% protein) but must be mixed.
birds can survive on almost anything: chickens will eat the leaves and seeds found in hay bales, chickens near water will eat snails and trapped minnows, etc.
it is suggested to feed cracked over whole grains so it is digested better, and they'll need grit as well
if you feed prepared pellets, mash, or crumble feed than no grit is needed
bird keepers I know feed a mix or turkey starter and cracked corn 50/50 and feed it to everything from turkeys and pheasants to chickens and ducks. I did this this year for my quail, chickens, and pheasants and fed this to ducks in the past.
the only thing to note is that medicated feed will kill waterfowl.
extremely high protein can damage internal organs but nothing to worry about at these levels.
My butcher told me of one farmer who gets leftover bread from a bakery and that is all he feeds to his meat chickens.
so feel free to use what's available and cheap as long as protein is high enough. if protein is too low it doesn't hurt but they will stop laying. birds with a more varied diet will lay eggs with a deeper colour yolk: from yellow to deep orange. i haven't heard if it makes a difference on hatchability but i suspect that they are healthier with a more varied diet.
if calcium is too low the eggs will have a thin shell or possibly even no shell. this is easy to fix, add ground egg shells to the feed, or oyster shell, or your feed store may stock a grit that is high in calcium
