I think your most recent thread (the one that is getting bad tempered) however, may just be the wrong way to approach the discussion.
You are right! It was an attempt to:
Addressing head on that the commercial feed may be inadequate
which is what I was trying to do there, because I am now convinced that commercial feed is inadequate/positively harmful by default.
That some people have healthy old birds despite eating it all their lives I don't doubt, but I'm also sure that the forage or 'treats' it turns out they've
also eaten, when said people stop and think about it, have probably been life savers. The stuff that's missing from commercial feed is only needed in very, very small quantities every so often, and can usually be supplied via real food, which is what most of these people actually mean by treats, despite their comparisons with candy etc. (The language they use sometimes feels Orwellian.)
They picked one part to focus on, instead of looking at your post as a whole. Some sounded quite defensive.
Indeed. I sometimes wonder if it's a bit 'Don't look up'-esque.
I do know that my birds will not touch pellets.
As many find. And they get told to make their poor birds eat it or starve. That makes me mad.
Thread debates with two entrenched sides isn't likely to prove productive.
Indeed. A challenge is not received with enthusiasm by the nutritionists and sellers of commercial feed. The professional beliefs and teachings of the former are affected, and the profits of the latter.
It's worth bearing in mind we eat similar crap and have the weight gain to prove it, not to mention the heart problems, the cancers, the type 2 diabetes, diet related depressions and much more no doubt.
I should add that to the argument!
The problem lies with this word "treat".
I think it's just a red herring.
Nutrition is a quite complicated matter.
That's what nutritionists and people who make money in the food/ feed business want us to believe. Remember that chickens have lived for millions of years and commercial feed has been around for a few decades. Real food is not and does not have to be expensive. Local seasonal unfashionable produce is cheap. My last 25kg sack of whole wheat cost £8. Forage is free.
Someone who doesn't have a garden of any sort can't let their chickens forage (and probably shouldn't have chickens). Anyone else can, and if they don't overstock, their garden won't be eaten to destruction - as their pens are, because their inhabitants really, really want to eat grass and weeds and dirt and the things that live in it. Hang on a minute - I've got it:
'Free your chickens' should be my slogan!
the wild child is 1 today 
