Quote:
Yes you can use wild bird food, although it is pricey on a per unit basis.
There IS a defined scratch feed and it is composed of many things. It originated as spoiled, frozen or otherwise unusable grain which was unfit for human or livestock consumption. These were all ground coarsely together to help release their nutrients and fed as either a wet mash feed, as tossed grain and sometimes as a sort of pelleted feed. It was only called scratch in recent years, because when it is tossed on the ground or in the litter, that is how the chickens get it, by "scratching" for it.
The grains that comprise its makeup can be varied, but they are normally
Cracked corn
Cracked wheat
Crushed oats
Millet/Milo
BOSS (black oil sunflower seed)
... there can be many more, byproducts of the milling and feed industry. Where I live here in South Carolina you can buy it at
WalMart!
Scratch satisifes the
ability of the chicken to process seed and grain feeds in it's crop. It is not easily broken down, however, and requires they have access to grinding grit and plenty of water. The same is true of wild bird foods.
Scratch grain also demands a good bit of energy to process as food, so I find it rather unlikely that a chicken will get "fat" on a strict diet of scratch.
Added to it's list of vices, is the fact that it is not a complete and balanced nutrition source, so is seen primarily as a supplement feed.
So the real question is, "Are you missing anything if you are not feeding it?" If you are giving regular commercial feed along with green feeds as available, I'd have to say no, not really.
