My daughter has life threatening food allergies. I never buy any foods that aren't safe for her, including pet foods (since she handles the food). I started to put probiotics in the chicks' water and knew the ingredients, but hadn't checked for possible cross contamination. Important with people food since even traces of allergen can cause anaphylaxis so it would be important to us once eggs are being laid. So I emailed the company that makes the probiotics and they said that the item is made in a shared facility with at least one of my daughter's allergens (which happen to be peanuts and tree nuts) but that the eggs shouldn't be affected. Only the poo. What makes this different than say, soy or whatever, that people are concerned with getting into the eggs? Is it because it's a probiotic? Or are these people uninformed? The company that packages and sells it is not the same company that produces it, btw. The company that packages is the one that I am corresponding with, not the producers, but they got the information from the people who make it for them. And my other question-how else can I give them probiotics, if not this powder? I read that yogurt doesn't really have enough, but does it? Since chickens are so small and all? It needs to be a fairly easy method if possible since I don't really have the room, time or patience to make my own formula.
For probiotics you can easily make yogurt or kefir at home and not have to worry about the processing facility. Chicken also like raw clabbered milk. If the chickens are free ranging they don't really need this unless they are having a problem you are trying to treat. Just trying to remember from biology and that was a while back. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in. As far as soy in the feed I think it is broken down into their various amino acids and then reconstituted as protein -- chicken egg or meat. That is, the protein you are eating is chicken protein not soy at this point.
What I worry about is if there is an allergen that effects your daughter in their feed, the chickens could be coated with some in dust. I know chickens can be messy eaters, so food dust on feathers, then eggs are laid and the eggs get a bit of that dust on the outside too with contains the allergen. Gosh I worded that odd, I need my coffee, but did that make some sense? I do think kefir and yogurt are great probiotic suggestions. Kefir is a type of yogurt-like product that is more drinkable, and easy to make at room temperature on your counter or a cupboard. You just need live starter grains (not the powdered 'starters' that stores sell, since those starters can only be used a few times before you need to start over) that last indefinitely (I store the grains in the fridge in a jar of milk when I am not going to make any kefir for a while).
Quote:Yes that does make sense too. I've already asked for the ingredients in the layer feed we'll be using and it doesn't look like it has any of her allergens. There is the very nonspecific "vegetable oil" but I suspect any nut oils would be pretty expensive. I will probably ask for clarification on it though. My daughter doesn't appear to be contact sensitive, luckily, and I'd probably wash any eggs right before using them which would get rid of any dust, hopefully. Quote:I'll look into that but I have zero desire to make something myself, even if it's easy. Can I just buy that already made somewhere? GNC maybe? With only 6 chickens (we have 12 now but are going to rehome 6) I wouldn't need a ton of it. thanks everyone.
