Today i switched from Dumor 20% chick starter crumble to Natures Best Organic 20% chick starter. My girls are 20 weeks old and I have decided to keep them on the Chick starter because of the higher protein. After comparing the ingredient list, I noticed the dumor has dehulled soybean meal and the natures best has organic soybean meal. I wonder the difference. Also, natures best shows organic wheat, and the dumor says wheat red dog. Again, because these ingredients make up a larger portion of the feed,i wonder is there a concerning difference. I just dont know which one listed would be better for the chickens. The natures best also has distomaceous earth, and dumor does not. Is this a good or bad thing?
i hope I made the right decision. I chose to switch to organic because I eat organic and I believe in it. Thats really the only thing i can say about that. It just makes me feel better. But, when i see different ingredients all together or omitted from one feed, it makes me wonder, which is better??? Learning curves are tough!!
DE in feed is a deterrent to bugs crawling around in feed. It has no nutritional value (beyond what the dead bugs provide), and its effectiveness (which is both low, and slow under the best of conditions - it works by scrapping the carapaces of insects, causing them to sdessicate - they die of dehydration thru their shells) is made more questionable by the constant abrasion of the other ingredients.
Dehulling the soybeans before milling significantly reduces the fiber content of the meal, making it more protein dense. Generic Soybean Meal has nutritional info offered here. Red Dog wheat is a hard, high protein wheat, similar to durum. Organic Wheat can be any variety.
How do the certified nutritional analysis compare?
/edit I see you photo'd them, thank you.
Two things jump out at me. One, the Dumor is lower fat. Acceptable range of fat recommendations vary quite a lot in the literature, but 2.5% is at the low end. It would not be my first choice for starting chicks, particularly if I were raising meaties, or dual purpose straight run birds with an expectation of culling "excess" males at a young age. That surprises me, actually, I assumed Dumor would use more corn (a fatty source) because its cheap.
Two, while your organic is better than the Dumor on Lysine - and barely scrapes the bottom of the recommended numbers for all chicken types and almost all life stages (the exception is adult laying hens, where its adequate - as is the Dumor), both are deficient in methonine for all life stages of all bird types. You really want to see a figure around 0.5-0.6% in a Starter, and at least 0.4% in an "All Flock". Good plant sources of Methionine are rare - so rare that initial organic certification allowed the inclusion of synthetic methionine while retaining the "organic" labeling.
Lysine and Methionine are among the most critical amino acids, particularly in early life stages. Without adequate amounts, chicken size will be less than potential, and they will be unable to use all the protien made available to them in building their little bodies.
Honestly, this is something I struggle with myself, trying to offer supplimental methionine. Soy is an ok source, that's where a significant portion in the feed comes from. Oats are pretty good, and quinoa, as are sesame seed and sunflower seed (both high fat though!), Brazil nuts - but nuts and birds are usually a bad combination. Spinach is decent, as are many legumes. I'm sprouting fenugreek in an effort to get my birds to eat more.
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