I am concerned with what goes into my chickens as well as my dogs, my horses and myself and family. There's a LOT of hanky panky going on with feed companies with the notion to pad the bottom line. Hence all of those dogs and cats dying and the big food recall because China used Melamine to boost protein percentages. Now, and even then, GMO is suspect.
The way I look at it is if it's good for me, it's good for them. I feed very little commercially prepared feed. I want to know what's in it. I do feed my hen's Layena, but it is more like a supplement rather than the total feed. They get free range, most of my table scraps, all the fruit from my Banana and papaya trees.. Over ripened fruit and veggies from my garden (they dont like cabbage) Whole oats, Black OIl Sunflower Seeds (BOSS) wild bird seed. old bread and what ever they pick up running around on 5 acres..
They're HAPPY chickens that live happy lives.. Their eggs show it. Gorgeous orangey yellow yolks that stand up like golf balls. Firm whites that hold their shapes and aren't loose and runny. My horses get as much local hay and pasture as they want to eat. I feed whole oats and the old ones get Alfalfa/Timothy Pellets soaked in water to help them chew.
What sort of changed my mind is about 15-20 years ago, I used to buy the cheapest chicken crumbles out there. (4.00- 5.00 a bag) It always had a mouldy, wet stall smell to me. One day, I visited a relative Chicken farm In North Carolina.. It was the SAME smell inside those buildings! I found out that after they remove those chickens for processing, the litter (shavings and poop) are used as filler and ground in with corn, rendered animal fat and meat ( road kill, euthanised pets..etc) and other chaff for commercial chicken diets.. It kind of made me sick, considering euthanasia meds,odd ball medications, amprolium and other antibiotics are used, passed through into the shavings and compounded in another chicken. Sort of like little fish and mercury after a while, the big fish have too much mercury and we aren't supposed to eat it.
So, now, I spend a little extra money for Layena. It's supposed to me 100% plant material .. Some other feeds do have rendered meat for higher protein)
But it's about 1/10 their over all diet.
That's just me, I too am a dog food snob because of what goes in the feed.. When you read the labels on bargain/grocery store brands.. You'll see Poultry digest.. another word for poop. My dog gets Taste of the wild or instinct, and even then a small amount, as he gets to have some of what the family eats. He's a sucker for asparagus, broccoli,brussel sprouts and whole grain noodles, he gets a fresh egg every day (cooked though) and he likes swwet potatoes, peas and brown rice too.
You are what you eat and the current statistic says 1 out of 2 people living to 75 will get some form of cancer in their life times.. not good odds. I blame it on commercial foods and what's in our air..
