A lot of the "chicken" and "protein" in pet food is finely ground up feathers and some chicken offal and bones.So today at the feed store I managed to remember to check for animal protein in the feed... the gamebird feed does not list it either. sigh.
They do have pond fish feed, 27 for a 50lb bag.... it has fish meal, porcine and beef meal plus bone meal. Almost got it but balked at the price and not knowing if the birds would even eat it...?
No fish meal. Turns out the feed store staff are not a fount of knowledge.... very nice folks but no real answers... one staff did say she would try looking into it- feed with animal protein or a bulk source for it.
I spent a good while in the dog/cat aisle at the grocery store reading the labels... almost tempting to think protein is protein after all, on almost all of them the animal protein was not in the top three. Except for kitten food, chicken was the first thing. Is the order really an indicator of the %? I feel like a noob here...btw- the chickens really liked the kitty food. It's way too expensive as a permanent solution though, 8.99 for a little itty bitty bag..
In some cheaper varieties of canned dog food you can actually see the coarsely ground up feathers.