How to up the protien?

[ssbs]

The only food I have found around here is the dumor 24%, I used it on my first couple batches of chicks and they did okay but stayed small (Especially my roos, whom I didn't supplement with meal worms). I've got a batch of eggs in the bator and would like to figure the food thing out. Is there anything I can add to the feed to up the protein?
Crushed grain free cat or dog food maybe?? (40%-55% protein)

 

[pascopol]

24% protein is more than enough for chickens. If they seem small to you look for genetics and breed characteristics of yours.

I never seen cat or dog food of more that 27-30% protein content.

Too much protein could be bad for particular species, so use common sense and caution.

Protein is just one of the basic nutrients besides carbs and fats, not something we want to feed exclusively to all living creatures.

 

[ssbs]

I don't have chickens

I have quail.

Taste of the wild Rocky Mountain Feline has 42% protein. EVO cat has 52%

I wasn't talking about feeding it strictly, I was asking if I could feed some in addition to the Dumor so my chicks would be getting more protein

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
The question was posted on the quail forum.

Quail get higher protein than chickens do.

That said, 24% protein should be okay for quail. That's the % in Manna Pro starter. (I can't get anything EXCEPT Manna Pro's 5 pound bags at that level of protein!)

If by some chance you are wanting a higher protein food -- perhaps you're feeding a lot of supplemental feed of some sort -- then I suppose you could add some soy meal. That would up the protein. I'm not sure how much you'd want to add, though.

Edited: I wouldn't fiddle with the feed for chicks. I'd get the Manna Pro if it's available to you and use that. It's pretty good feed. (I did get a couple of bad bags recently but suspect that is the fault of the STORE not the feed mill! They'd been around a wee bit too long...)

 

[ssbs]

Tractor supply does sale the game bird/show bird by manna pro but it is over $1 a pound compared to the $.30 a pound I pay for dumor. With the same amount of protein. The only manna pro chick starter they have is medicated

 

[ssbs]

I got it taken care of.. I called a little country store and ordered Purina 30% protein. 50 pounds for $18!

 

[aprophet]

google pearson square like above said soybean meal is really high in protein 24% would probably be alright they will just grow a lot slower, using purina startena mine have been laying @5 1/2-6 weeks all summer long

http://www.noble.org/tools/pearsonSq.html

here is a calculator that makes it easy, try using purinas dealer locator

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I feed my bobs Purina Flock Raiser from egg to plate. Nice large sized healthy YUMMY birds!

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
BINGO! THERE YA GO!

AS FOR PRICE PER POUND... BY THE TIME YOU BUY DULESS, AND THE CAT FOOD (WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE FOR QUAIL) MOST OFTEN TIMES YOU CAN BUY A COMPLETE RATION STARTER FOR THE SAME OR LESS AND DONT HAVE TO HAVE ANY FRANKENSTIEN'S MONSTER EXPERIMENTS OR CHORES TO GO THRU TO HAVE FEED READY TO USE... IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST MAKE YOUR OWN FOOD SOYBEAN MEAL IS THE PROTIEN BOOSTER YOU WANT TO USE FOR QUAIL OR GAMEBIRDS. (THERE ARE MANY FOLKS WHO HAVE LIMITED OR NO GB STARTER AVAILABILITY IN THEIR GEOGRAPHIC AREAS)