Okay, the ingredient lists alone are going to make this a long post...
I've been wandering around and pricing up potential food bags. There is the obvious option of chicken feed, but even the smaller -- and much more expensive per kilo -- bag is 5kg. We're only getting two birds for now and the available space will only support about four adults, so the amount of time a bag spends open is a concern. There are four options of interest.
1. Organic Poultry Feed / Grower Finisher pellets, 20kg, 19.18 (5kg bag costs half as much)
2. Wilkos / Muesli Pea Feast, 1.75, 2kg
3. Wilkos / Wildly Tasty Seed Mix, 1.50, 2kg
4. Aldi / big bag of wild bird seed, 12.75kg, about 7.00
There's also the Farmgate stuff that the breeder uses. I'll be picking up some of that to prevent sudden changes in the birds' diet.
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1. Grower / finisher pellets ingredients & nutritional information
Organic Wheat, Organic Soya Expeller, Organic Linseed Expeller, Organic Alfalfa, Organic Maize, Calcium Carbonate, Yeast, Di-Calcium Phosphate, Organic Linseed, Sea Salt
Crude Protein: 16.0%
Crude Oils and Fats: 4.0%
Crude Fibre: 5.0%
Crude Ash: 6.5%
Lysine: 0.86%
Methionine: 0.3%
Calcium: 1.0%
Phosphorous: 0.5%
Sodium: 0.15%
This would seem to be the obvious choice of feed, but since the ingredients are in pellet form that means they've been ground up and their nutritional insides exposed.
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2. Muesli pea feast ingredients and nutritional information
Large flaked peas, flaked barley, grass pellets, flaked maize, whole wheat, Concentrated Pellets (oatfeed, grassfeed, extracted sunflower, barley, wheatfeed, peas, vegetable fat, binder, dicalcium phosphate, limestone, vitamin & mineral supplement, salt), wheat extrusions, whole oats, locust beans, soya oil, minerals
Protein: 15%
Fibre: 8%
Oil & fat: 3%
Ash: 4%
Calcium: 5g/kg (0.005%)
Phosphorus: 4g/kg (0.004%)
Vitamin A (E672): 10,000 iu/kg
Vitamin D3 (E671): 1,000 iu/kg
Vitamin E: 20iu/kg
Coppen (E4): 25mg/kg
That's a lot of ingredients. Variety is good. I have no idea how much of it is peas and barley, but it would be at least 25%, and that's assuming all the ingredients from the peas to the locust beans are almost evenly distributed.
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3. Wildly Tasty seed mix ingredients and nutritional information
Wheat, red dari, split maize, sunflower seeds, millet, split pea
Protein: 10.3%
Fibre: 3.43%
Fat: 5.5%
Ash: 1.61%
I picked this one because it has more information on the bag than the Aldi bird seed. See below.
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4. Aldi wild bird seed ingredients and nutritional information
Ingredients not listed. Appears to contain wheat, oats, red dari, sunflower seed, and flaked maize.
Nutritional information not listed. Probably similar to option 3.
We use this for feeding the wild birds. I know the oats will sprout, but everything else gets eaten. As mostly whole grains, the stuff should keep pretty well.
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So, thoughts? What I'd really like is some chicken feed that comes in 1kg bags and doesn't cost stupid money. Pfft, I wonder if I could buy the 20kg bag of feed and sell most of it on Ebay in 1kg batches for less than 'stupid money'? For the amount people want for 1kg of feed I could go to Holland and Barrett and buy a much wider assortment of grain.
Also, I discovered by accident that the black eyed peas we buy for ourselves will sprout quite well. I didn't think tooth-crackingly dried beans could do that. So there's another bit of variety. I'll have to try the chickpeas next.
I've been wandering around and pricing up potential food bags. There is the obvious option of chicken feed, but even the smaller -- and much more expensive per kilo -- bag is 5kg. We're only getting two birds for now and the available space will only support about four adults, so the amount of time a bag spends open is a concern. There are four options of interest.
1. Organic Poultry Feed / Grower Finisher pellets, 20kg, 19.18 (5kg bag costs half as much)
2. Wilkos / Muesli Pea Feast, 1.75, 2kg
3. Wilkos / Wildly Tasty Seed Mix, 1.50, 2kg
4. Aldi / big bag of wild bird seed, 12.75kg, about 7.00
There's also the Farmgate stuff that the breeder uses. I'll be picking up some of that to prevent sudden changes in the birds' diet.
----------
1. Grower / finisher pellets ingredients & nutritional information
Organic Wheat, Organic Soya Expeller, Organic Linseed Expeller, Organic Alfalfa, Organic Maize, Calcium Carbonate, Yeast, Di-Calcium Phosphate, Organic Linseed, Sea Salt
Crude Protein: 16.0%
Crude Oils and Fats: 4.0%
Crude Fibre: 5.0%
Crude Ash: 6.5%
Lysine: 0.86%
Methionine: 0.3%
Calcium: 1.0%
Phosphorous: 0.5%
Sodium: 0.15%
This would seem to be the obvious choice of feed, but since the ingredients are in pellet form that means they've been ground up and their nutritional insides exposed.
----------
2. Muesli pea feast ingredients and nutritional information
Large flaked peas, flaked barley, grass pellets, flaked maize, whole wheat, Concentrated Pellets (oatfeed, grassfeed, extracted sunflower, barley, wheatfeed, peas, vegetable fat, binder, dicalcium phosphate, limestone, vitamin & mineral supplement, salt), wheat extrusions, whole oats, locust beans, soya oil, minerals
Protein: 15%
Fibre: 8%
Oil & fat: 3%
Ash: 4%
Calcium: 5g/kg (0.005%)
Phosphorus: 4g/kg (0.004%)
Vitamin A (E672): 10,000 iu/kg
Vitamin D3 (E671): 1,000 iu/kg
Vitamin E: 20iu/kg
Coppen (E4): 25mg/kg
That's a lot of ingredients. Variety is good. I have no idea how much of it is peas and barley, but it would be at least 25%, and that's assuming all the ingredients from the peas to the locust beans are almost evenly distributed.
----------
3. Wildly Tasty seed mix ingredients and nutritional information
Wheat, red dari, split maize, sunflower seeds, millet, split pea
Protein: 10.3%
Fibre: 3.43%
Fat: 5.5%
Ash: 1.61%
I picked this one because it has more information on the bag than the Aldi bird seed. See below.
----------
4. Aldi wild bird seed ingredients and nutritional information
Ingredients not listed. Appears to contain wheat, oats, red dari, sunflower seed, and flaked maize.
Nutritional information not listed. Probably similar to option 3.
We use this for feeding the wild birds. I know the oats will sprout, but everything else gets eaten. As mostly whole grains, the stuff should keep pretty well.
----------
So, thoughts? What I'd really like is some chicken feed that comes in 1kg bags and doesn't cost stupid money. Pfft, I wonder if I could buy the 20kg bag of feed and sell most of it on Ebay in 1kg batches for less than 'stupid money'? For the amount people want for 1kg of feed I could go to Holland and Barrett and buy a much wider assortment of grain.
Also, I discovered by accident that the black eyed peas we buy for ourselves will sprout quite well. I didn't think tooth-crackingly dried beans could do that. So there's another bit of variety. I'll have to try the chickpeas next.
