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@Brooks_ @nuthatched @Tired old Rooster the following should answer your questions..

Hypothesis-

1. That with the constant availability of enough variety of ingredients to choose between in individually separated auto fed containers, they will be more capable of adjusting their nutritional intake according to individual need than I would be.

2. That this could potentially result in lower feed consumption, less waste, and healthier birds that live longer and lay better tasting more nutritious eggs.

As far as I’m aware their ability to self regulate intake of anything other than calories and calcium has not been tested, so it’ll be interesting to find out either way.

The test subjects will be Italian coturnix roosting on the Welsh border with me and my two dogs.
It has been tested in chickens. At least two peer review published studies offered each ingredient of a commercial feed separately. The chicks (in one) and laying hens (in the other) ate very nearly the exact proportions of each ingredient as the commercial mix had.... over many weeks for the chicks. I don't know the time frame for the hens. I think there have been others too.

I'm most interested in how managing so many separate containers goes.
 
Pork fat is a top ten most nutritious food?
Really?
I'm willing to explore how they determined that but... really!?
'nutritious' here is based on the adequacy of levels of essential good nutrients and the absence of bad nutrients in something. You know how important that is because of your struggles with selenium.
 
It has been tested in chickens. At least two peer review published studies offered each ingredient of a commercial feed separately. The chicks (in one) and laying hens (in the other) ate very nearly the exact proportions of each ingredient as the commercial mix had.... over many weeks for the chicks. I don't know the time frame for the hens. I think there have been others too.

I'm most interested in how managing so many separate containers goes.
Thankyou for posting this.
I haven’t seen the studies, it’s reassuring news.
Do you remember where you found them? Or could you post the links?
 
they are linked here, together with similar studies on pullets and on meat birds choosing their own with better results than on a so-called complete feed.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...trad-views-on-nutrition.1567953/post-26615879
I’d already liked this post in the nutrition thread but obviously not consciously taken it in.
If the cost issue can be addressed with things like forage, rearing insects, and home grown pseudo grains ect. I can’t see any reasonable argument for feeding pellets other than convenience.
 

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