Purina SunFresh Recipe

[BeckyLa]

Thanks for the help! Unfortunately, I don't think I can get any of those around here unless I special order and I'm sure just the shipping would kill that idea.

 

[speckledhen]

You can ask the feedstore if they can get any of those in. The Purina store even gets some of the Faithway Feeds layer pellets due to popular demand in this area.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
Funny, I stopped using Nutrena because it smelled funny. Now I use MannaPro and really love it. Everyone's laying like crazy

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

I have the feed mill grind mine. So its made the way i need it, depending who i'm feeding.

 

[Laskaland]

Quote:
What does the ingrediant list say if it has animal by-products in it?
hugs
C

 

[speckledhen]

Says "porcine"something, so from the pig. Sorry, I dont have the label in the house to get the exact wording. It smells fresh and has almost zero dust.

 

[cgmccary]

The Purina Sunfresh group of feeds: Start & Grow (18%); Flock Raiser (20%); Layena (16%) consist of only plant proteins. I too first used these feeds and my birds did well on them but when I started breeding, I looked for a feed with both animal & plant protein. Also, my breed (Buckeyes) needed more protein (at least 28%)-- not all breeds need this and some actually do better on very low protein when growing (i.e. Jersey Giants, Javas, perhaps Brahmas). There were quite a number of poultry breeders who noticed lower fertility rates and also reported poorer feather quality with the advent of Purina (Sunfresh) and a lot of the other feed companies with "plant-only" proteins in the feed. Purina and other companies did this following the "mad cow disease" epidemic some years ago. I believe if you aren't interested in breeding but just keeping a backyard hobby flock, these feeds are fine.

The ADM feeds available to me only come only in pellets and contain animal protein too. However, my birds don't like eating pellets (or maybe it's because they can't waste it the same), and I don't like feeding them pellet-dominated-only diet. Another poultry breeder warned me about feeding pellet only diet {that they had experienced crop blockage}.

The Purina Game Chow group of feeds all have both animal & plant protein and is what I use now. All the bags look the same so you have to look at the tag (Startena--30% protein, Conditioner-20% and Layena-20%).

 

[Cindy in PA]

I just switched my 12 chickens from Sunfresh Layena to Game bird conditioner and have already noticed a difference in feathering. I never had a problem with picking etc, until 2004 when I got chickens again after a 2 year break and started using Sunfresh. Of course this is when they took animal proteins out of chicken food. After trying all different additions to protein, but not really keeping up with it, I figured out "duh" I can just feed gamebird food. I wanted Game bird Layena (20%), but my store only had the flight conditioner which is 19%. I plan to feed this from now on, as I enjoy giving them greens, leftovers and scratch everyday.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Unfortunately most feeds no longer contain animal protein.
Many including Sunfresh are soy based which can cause fertility issues since soy contains an estrogen precursor.
I had my feed dealer search for some poultry feed with meat for me and he came up with nothing. He recommended getting some porcine to add to my feed.
Maybe the soy industry is behind the Mad Cow Disease scare.