Yep, I agree with Danz on the molt. I don't give mine anything extra as it is a normal process they should be able to complete as long as their nutrition is adequate. Flock Raiser already has a higher protein percentage than layer feed so they should do fine on it through molt.
Regarding that meatloaf....I have to say it would not have gone to the animals in this household. I grew up in another country and have found that American attitudes to food are vastly different than the way I was raised. Years ago when my daughter was crawling, she would of course pick up everything and put it in her mouth. I try to maintain a generally clean house but I'm not fanatical about it so inevitably some of the stuff that ended up in her mouth had to have contained bacteria. She did not have so much as a cold for the first two years of her life (and only got one then because I had to put her in day care for a few weeks). Meanwhile, a friend of mine had a daughter the same age. Every night she would pick up all of her daughter's toys and soak them in bleach for an hour, then dry them and set them back out to be played with next day. Her daughter was non-stop sick. I never saw her that she didn't have a stream of disgusting looking stuff coming out of her nose. My theory developed that we need exposure to the elements in order to be healthy.
Where I grew up, leftovers typically stay out overnight to cool before being put away the next day. Awhile back I worked in a small group of people - myself, an American and a French woman. One morning the American was lamenting that she had had to throw out an entire large meal. I asked why and she said it was because they had served their meal, then watched TV for an hour, forgetting about the food sitting out on the counter. By the time it had set out for an hour, she felt it was too dangerous and threw it all away. The French woman and I sat there staring while she related this, our jaws dropping in disbelief. We both immediately told her there was no reason to have thrown away the meal. In France apparently they never put leftovers away. They sit out in the pot on the stove and they continue to eat from the pot until it is empty - sometimes days later. I related that we also don't hurry to put leftovers away and never do it before the next day, as it is too energy inefficient to put hot foods in the fridge and make it work overtime to cool them.
Here's the thing: In France, apparently food poisoning is non-existent. I also have never had a case of food poisoning. She and I discussed and developed a theory that by exposing ourselves to whatever finds its way into the foods, we teach our bodies that they are not dangerous, whereas, just like with my friend who bleached her baby's toys nightly, by attempting to eliminate all bacteria, the body overreacts when it does encounter something.
Now, I'm not suggesting you leave food out for 5 days and then eat it if you've never done it before - guaranteed you will make yourself ill. But - teach your body in small increments not to worry about stuff and you'll be better off in the long run.
So - this is my long way of saying that not only would the animals not have gotten the meatloaf and potatoes, in our household, it would have been completely "normal" for them to have cooled on the stove overnight and eaten by the people next day. In fact, since that conversation with my French co-worker, I no longer even put leftovers up the next day. Now I too leave them on the stove until they are finished - often 2-3 days after the meal was prepared.
Actually this is a real problem for us in another sense. Everyone I know skimps on their animal feed bill by feeding "food scraps" to the animals. But in our household food scraps are relatively rare. The things we don't eat - coffee grounds, citrus peels, onion skins - are also the things the animals aren't interested in eating
Regarding that meatloaf....I have to say it would not have gone to the animals in this household. I grew up in another country and have found that American attitudes to food are vastly different than the way I was raised. Years ago when my daughter was crawling, she would of course pick up everything and put it in her mouth. I try to maintain a generally clean house but I'm not fanatical about it so inevitably some of the stuff that ended up in her mouth had to have contained bacteria. She did not have so much as a cold for the first two years of her life (and only got one then because I had to put her in day care for a few weeks). Meanwhile, a friend of mine had a daughter the same age. Every night she would pick up all of her daughter's toys and soak them in bleach for an hour, then dry them and set them back out to be played with next day. Her daughter was non-stop sick. I never saw her that she didn't have a stream of disgusting looking stuff coming out of her nose. My theory developed that we need exposure to the elements in order to be healthy.
Where I grew up, leftovers typically stay out overnight to cool before being put away the next day. Awhile back I worked in a small group of people - myself, an American and a French woman. One morning the American was lamenting that she had had to throw out an entire large meal. I asked why and she said it was because they had served their meal, then watched TV for an hour, forgetting about the food sitting out on the counter. By the time it had set out for an hour, she felt it was too dangerous and threw it all away. The French woman and I sat there staring while she related this, our jaws dropping in disbelief. We both immediately told her there was no reason to have thrown away the meal. In France apparently they never put leftovers away. They sit out in the pot on the stove and they continue to eat from the pot until it is empty - sometimes days later. I related that we also don't hurry to put leftovers away and never do it before the next day, as it is too energy inefficient to put hot foods in the fridge and make it work overtime to cool them.
Here's the thing: In France, apparently food poisoning is non-existent. I also have never had a case of food poisoning. She and I discussed and developed a theory that by exposing ourselves to whatever finds its way into the foods, we teach our bodies that they are not dangerous, whereas, just like with my friend who bleached her baby's toys nightly, by attempting to eliminate all bacteria, the body overreacts when it does encounter something.
Now, I'm not suggesting you leave food out for 5 days and then eat it if you've never done it before - guaranteed you will make yourself ill. But - teach your body in small increments not to worry about stuff and you'll be better off in the long run.
So - this is my long way of saying that not only would the animals not have gotten the meatloaf and potatoes, in our household, it would have been completely "normal" for them to have cooled on the stove overnight and eaten by the people next day. In fact, since that conversation with my French co-worker, I no longer even put leftovers up the next day. Now I too leave them on the stove until they are finished - often 2-3 days after the meal was prepared.
Actually this is a real problem for us in another sense. Everyone I know skimps on their animal feed bill by feeding "food scraps" to the animals. But in our household food scraps are relatively rare. The things we don't eat - coffee grounds, citrus peels, onion skins - are also the things the animals aren't interested in eating
