Switched foods to Nutrena, does anyone else feed it to their birds?

[chicken_china_mom]

I was using Dumor which I was getting at TSC, and it was roughly $14 for a 50 lb bag. I stopped in Big R the other day and was stunned to see the Nutrena layer food was $7.49 for a 40 lb bag, so I bought that and brought it home and gave it to my birds. First thing I noticed is that my birds are eating it a lot slower. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. They are in the early stages of egg laying, so they aren't laying regularly, but they are still laying. I give them oyster shells and whatever table scraps we have so by no means are they starving! But they are just not eating it as fast. I am wondering if it's a good feed, does anyone else use it? Cost was a big reason why I switched. I can get two bags of the Nutrena for the cost of one bag of Dumor. I am comparing the two to see if I should stick with the Nutrena or should I go back to the Dumor. Any advice I get would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading my post!


***Edited to add that while on Dumor my birds were plowing through a 50 lb bag in about 7 days time, sometimes less time than that. They just devoured it. With this Nutrena it takes the 42 birds about 2 1/2 days to finish off a seven lb feeder full. It's easier on my budget, that's for sure, but I care more about the health of my birds.

 

[anngili]

I got some but my pullets didn't seem to be growing as fast as they had been so I checked the contents and the protein content was lower and I just wasn't comfortable with it for some reason. I went back to the Dumor and my chickens like it better and are more inclined to eat it. I've started giving them the run of the backyard during the day and they're eating a lot less but they seem to have picked up a bit with the Dumor, even though I bought layer since they were out of grower feed.
It sounds funny, but I have almost no sense of smell so I can't tell if the feed's smell was off and it looked okay, but it just felt different to me somehow.
I figured if the chickens didn't like it, they probably had a reason, so I switched back. I think the Purina and Nutrena feeds are probably good feeds, but I'm thinking I may have spent a lot less but got a lot less chicken growth so I'm going back to the Dumor.
I gave the other feed to a friend but told her it was lower protein and she should probably add that to her chickens' diet. She likes to give them treats so she added sunflower seed and some other stuff that the birds like. Her birds didn't like the feed either but they're eating it with the sunflower seeds mixed in.

 

[briteday]

I bought their grower feed, my birds liked it a lot...but where I live there is only one Nutrena dealer and he charges much more ($17 for 50#) than the other store charges for Purina.

 

[Hoosiermomma]

We used the Nutrena but it was a bit too pricey so we went back to the crumbles at our Orschelens. At some point we may switch back but as of now we'll stick with this.

 

[chickiemomma4]

Hi
I use Nutrena because it is all our local feed store carries and my hens and roos are doing find. I also have chicks on the starter. Thing is....I wish I could get it for $7.49 for a 40 lb. Here the 50 lb. chick starter is $13.70/50lb and the Layer Crumble is $10.80/50lb. The guy at the feed store says it is made by Purina. Dern thing is for scratch it cost $9.35. Dern corn prices. I live in a farm area and I am going to call the land owners here that have had the corn harvested and see if we can go pick up what the machine missed. The chickens love that corn on the cob for a treat! Hope that helps ...oh and mine look great and love it, but they haven't eaten any other brand. Maybe your's have gotten spoiled.

I really can't say about the other feed because I don't have it here. We are getting a TSC soon and I can't wait!