We have 7 chickens. 1 hen, 6 pullers. Our hen is molting for the first time. Should I switch the whole flock to a feather fixer type feed or just stick with something like a 20% protein grower feed with oyster shell on the side?
thanks wise chicken people of the internet! Lol
Stick with what you are doing. "
FF" is just higher protein (18%) layer feed - and its lower protein than the typical 20% "Nutrena
All Flock/Purina
Flook Raiser".
if you really want to get into the weeds, look at Met and Lys.
Met is 0.35, Lys 0.75 in FF
Met is 0.35, Lys 0.80 in AF
Met is 0.55, Lys is 1.1 in FR. (Part of why I say Purina FR is generally superior to Nurena AF)
Feathers are about 90% keratins, and keratins are an odd, hard to digest protein. They contain almost no lysine, and almost no tryptophan (tryp doesn't appear on a feed label, but is readily available in the typical grain-based diet.) Its mostly cystine (9%) , glutamine (8%), proline (12%), and serine (16%), which chickens can largely prodicue on their own.
Cystine is made, btw, fron Methionine when a bird doesn't get enough in its diet. About half the typical Met need in a bird is used for cystine production. There are decent amounts of Methionine (about 1%) and Threonine (4%) in keratins as well. Threonine does not appear on feed labels either (probably should), but is another limiting amino acid like Met, Lys, and Tryp). Threonine is high in meat byproducts like fish meal, corn gluten meal, soy meal, flax seeds, and beans - some mix of which are commonly present in chicken feeds to up protein levels to desired targets)
and yes, I had to look those % up, I don't have them memorized. I did know feathers needed Met and Thre, not Lys or Tryp.
) so I bought some black oil sunfolwer seed - just wondering how much we should be adding that to their food. (I have no idea what 20% protein would look like, combining that with their reg. layer feed.) A couple cups a day? More? Less?
