Why is feed so .... old? (added question about game bird feed)

[Akane]

More animal protein is good for the chickens. I feed all mine a gamebird starter. The other ingredients are digestive tract bacteria (probiotics) to help prevent various digestive upset. Maybe not that useful in your case but not at all harmful. Many animal feeds contain them.

 

[Tala]

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My chickens free range, they get animal protein. I don't have a problem with chickens eating animals, I feed them meat all the time. I generally DO NOT agree with feeding MYSTERIOUS ANIMAL BYPRODUCTS that I can't control. That is all.

However, I am going to give this stuff a chance. If the birds do well on it, then I'll use it. They were doing fine on the Purina, but it just seemed awfully old when I got to looking at it.

Part of me says if it ain't broke don't fix it, but this stuff IS $3 cheaper and they're eating me out of house and home right now.......

 

[Akane]

It's pretty rare to get named ingredients in poultry feed. People just don't care that much about poultry and too few are willing to pay what it takes to get named ingredients. I don't find animal by products to be any worse than grain by products and other mystery grain items that were probably swept up off the mill floor. They were getting rat poison in some cheap dog and cat foods by doing that.

Unless you want to pay for organic feed the game bird feed is unlikely to have any worse ingredients than the chicken feed you were already buying. Having more animal by products and less grain by products actually seems to give healthier birds.

 

[Tala]

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Note that I raw feed my dogs with human grade meats

However, I am realistic. I don't expect my chickens to live anywhere near as long as my dogs.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I think there is a trend to supply less and less information on the labels for chicken feed. Purina feed used to say what grains were used. Now you only know it has some type of grain. The way things are progressing, I'm waiting for the day when the bags just say Chicken Feed.

 

[Tala]

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Yeah, I've only been keeping chickens for a year and I remember when Purina listed what grains were in the bags. *sigh*

Well, the chickens don't seem to like this food. I know it's new, but they are just dumping it on the ground and giving it the stink eye....... I think they complained LESS last week when I had to buy pellets --- it was most of the younger birds first time to have pellets but they seemed to like them better than this.