I don't know about companies over there in the USA but over here their main concern is to make money! They don't put anything in the feed/pellets that will directly harm your animals but they can and will do pretty much anything to get you to buy the product. To do this they make the pellets "addictive" for the animals. Usually by adding salt. Pretty much every animal on the planet craves salt, that doesn't mean that they need as much of it as they can possibly get. Basically what this means is that no matter what else they have eaten during the day they are still likely to eat at least some pellets if they are offered.
When push comes to shove chickens are omnivores. They do need some variety in their diet, just like we do. We can have rice, corn, potatoes or even bread as a base to our diet, but without some variety we would get bored of it pretty quickly. There are a few things that we can eat that will provide the vast majority of what we need without needing to eat anything else (oats being one) but if offered something like chocolate or chips, I'm like most people, I would eat them preferentially over the "good stuff".
My chickens get fodder, they also get table scraps and free range most of the time. They only get additional grain if I have nothing else and they haven't been out ranging the paddocks. They are all healthy and except for when they go broody or into moult I get eggs.
When push comes to shove chickens are omnivores. They do need some variety in their diet, just like we do. We can have rice, corn, potatoes or even bread as a base to our diet, but without some variety we would get bored of it pretty quickly. There are a few things that we can eat that will provide the vast majority of what we need without needing to eat anything else (oats being one) but if offered something like chocolate or chips, I'm like most people, I would eat them preferentially over the "good stuff".
My chickens get fodder, they also get table scraps and free range most of the time. They only get additional grain if I have nothing else and they haven't been out ranging the paddocks. They are all healthy and except for when they go broody or into moult I get eggs.