Chicken nutrition and feed questions! Advice wanted.

[Perris]

The general rule of thumb is that anything else should amount to no more than 10% of their diet and they will still get a balanced diet. In practical terms, if they can't clean it up in 10 to 20 minutes then it's more than that 10%. You can feed them other things every day if you wish as long as it is below that 10% threshold.

Would you care to provide some - any - evidence (a properly written and refereed published paper, not marketing blurb or any individual's opinion) for this so-called rule that anything up to 10% is OK?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Good question.

Nope, that 10% is a rule of thumb. I have no scientific evidence to support it. It's something that makes sense to me based on what I've seen. Not just for chickens but for people and animals in general. Everything in moderation.

If you have special needs you are going to go differently. If you are raising show chickens you want to feed them a special diet high in protein so they will grow larger. You tend to get rewarded for larger chickens. There are tricks like dribbling a small amount of mineral or vegetable oil on their feed to give them shiny feathers, but you don't want to minimize their protein. If you are commercially raising meat chickens or keeping egg laying hybrids you want to be very careful feeding them to minimize your costs and to provide the exact nutrition they need. They are specialists.

To be clear, it is my opinion.

 

[nuthatched]

X4
Their complete diet is their feed. No herbs abd spices, vinegar or extras will help them.
What health and laying issues did you think the Purina was causing?

 

[easteregges]

That feed contains everything they need for a balanced diet. Everything. Vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber. If that is all they eat they will do fine.

The general rule of thumb is that anything else should amount to no more than 10% of their diet and they will still get a balanced diet. In practical terms, if they can't clean it up in 10 to 20 minutes then it's more than that 10%. You can feed them other things every day if you wish as long as it is below that 10% threshold.

They do not need herbs, spices, vinegar, scratch, or anything else if they have a balanced diet. Many people feed them that stuff because they think it helps but as far as I'm concerned it just makes the people feel good that they are "helping" the chickens. But as long as it is not too much it does not hurt them.

All of this goes out of the window if yours forage for much of their food. If you let them forage much you have lost the ability to micromanage what they eat. They decide that. As long as they have good varied forage chickens are pretty good about maintaining a balanced diet. They tend to eat a bit of everything.

Thank you.

 

[easteregges]

X4
Their complete diet is their feed. No herbs abd spices, vinegar or extras will help them.
What health and laying issues did you think the Purina was causing

I always thought that the herbs had health benefits from what I had researched. When they were on Purina they stoped laying completely and just were not very healthy or happy.

 

[easteregges]

They won't hurt, if that's what you are asking. They don't help - except potentially egg yolk color (the pepper flakes, primarily)

That makes sense and the herbs are dried too so they probaly have even less of their natrual bebefits. Thank you for all your help and information.

 

[Perris]

Everything in moderation.

Indeed; that is an excellent rule of thumb for life. I think it is a pity people do not apply it also to concentrated commercial feed. Reading some posts, one wonders how they suppose any people or animals survived eating just real food, before corporations came along to process and package and market their versions of it.

 

[nuthatched]

I always thought that the herbs had health benefits from what I had researched. When they were on Purina they stoped laying completely and just were not very healthy or happy.

Herbs and spices do have some health properties BUT not effective doses in normal dried or fresh form. Many herbs and spices have properties that are toxic to us and chickens in high amounts

 

[Ridgerunner]

I always thought that the herbs had health benefits from what I had researched. When they were on Purina they stoped laying completely and just were not very healthy or happy.

Can you please explain what was going on when that happened? How long had they been on that Purina feed when they stopped laying? How long had they been laying? What time of year was it (spring or fall)? Was it all of them or just some? Which specific Purina feed was it?

It is really strange that thousands of us use Purina with great results while you had a problem. To me it sounds like something else was going on.

 

[Perris]

I always thought that the herbs had health benefits from what I had researched.

And you were right. The article I linked for you was ignored, for whatever reason. Will a short quote from a different paper persuade you to stick with your original research findings?
"5.2.1.2. Dietary supplementation of feed additives. There are current efforts in the poultry industry to use natural antimicrobial agents, such as phytobiotics (herbs, plant extracts), prebiotics, probiotics and antimicrobial peptides to combat bacterial infections, modulate immune responses, and improve growth performance of broiler chickens without the use of antibiotics.5.2.1.2.1. Phytobiotics. These are plant-derived natural bioactive compounds that can be used as alternatives to antibiotics as growth promoters. It has been reported that early dietary herbal supplements enhance immune responses of broiler chickens by promoting splenic lymphocyte proliferation and modulating intestinal microbial populations. Addition of Ferulago angulata to diets increases serum antibody titers against influenza virus (Govahi et al., 2013), reduces the number of coliform bacteria in the ileum and cecum and increases the number of intestinal lactobacilli (Rostami et al., 2015). Similarly, early feeding of a polyherbal nutritional supplement is reported to increase antibody responses following vaccination against NDV and to improve gut function and morphogenesis, enhancing absorption and utilization of nutrients (Kadam et al., 2009)." Taha-Abdelaziz et.al. Effects of early feeding and dietary interventions on development of lymphoid organs and immune competence in neonatal chickens: A review https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetimm.2018.05.001