What to feed? Need Advice.

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
There again you may be right that it is not as good as Purina, but how do you know, since neither actually says what is in them??? Don't mean to be a pain, but people recommend all kinds of feed & others should go on there own personal observations. I have fed both Purina and Dumor & never noticed a difference. I quit using them both because my local feed lists ingredients, is freshly ground & does better for my flock. Just because one has a Nat'l brand name & one a generic doesn't definitely make one inferior.

Cindy I know Purnia is made in PA. I used to live in the same town and knew people that worked there. I have also used Dunmor after my first pick brand and saw and smelled a major differance in birds. Shortly after I switched I was loosing feather and poops went from small to large and very stinky. There is a thread I started that has someone commenting that Dunmors igredents are leftover rejects from making Purina better chicken feeds. Remember Dunmor is only made for TSC. I was not the only one that had this happen to them switching from a good brand to Dunmor. Luckily I went thru the bag much faster than my good brand and was able to get on it and fix what Dunmors feed did.

Purina has many feed mills all over the country (as do other national brands). The quality is not necessarily consistent from one mill to another.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
There again you may be right that it is not as good as Purina, but how do you know, since neither actually says what is in them???

All feed has a tag on the bag (at least if you are buying large bags) that tells you exactly what is in it. The tags give you the nutrient breakdown as well as the ingredients. The Purina website has a tutorial on how to read feed tags here .

Ingredient lists can be very specific: wheat, corn, oats, or very general: grains.

 

[BillT]

Quote:
Cindy I know Purnia is made in PA. I used to live in the same town and knew people that worked there. I have also used Dunmor after my first pick brand and saw and smelled a major differance in birds. Shortly after I switched I was loosing feather and poops went from small to large and very stinky. There is a thread I started that has someone commenting that Dunmors igredents are leftover rejects from making Purina better chicken feeds. Remember Dunmor is only made for TSC. I was not the only one that had this happen to them switching from a good brand to Dunmor. Luckily I went thru the bag much faster than my good brand and was able to get on it and fix what Dunmors feed did.

I know what you are saying, I just never noticed a difference in their poop between Dumor or Purina. I had problems with any feed not containing animal protein with feather picking and poor feathering. Just my observations on my flock. I think just like store brand people food, some are great and others not so much. Dumor may have less quality control & maybe the few times I used it, I got good bags, who knows?

I didn't mean to start a fuss over which brand is better. I just wanted to know what to feed little ones and big ones in the same coop.
I'm going to the local feed mill to try to get a lesser expensive feed that will work. Both Purina and Dumor are around $ 30.00 a 100 lbs. and I am going to try find some thing that's a little cheaper.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

BTW the little ones have been in the coop 9 days and the big ones are not picking on them as much anymore.

Bill

 

[laughaha]

Quote:
DEFINITELY AGREE

I don't buy feed from the Agway closest to me cuz when I (and alot of other people) use their 50lb bags of feed, the hens stop laying and it takes WEEKS to get them laying again (on a different feed) but I have NO problems with the feed from the Agway that's 40 minutes from me.

 

[laughaha]

Quote:
I know what you are saying, I just never noticed a difference in their poop between Dumor or Purina. I had problems with any feed not containing animal protein with feather picking and poor feathering. Just my observations on my flock. I think just like store brand people food, some are great and others not so much. Dumor may have less quality control & maybe the few times I used it, I got good bags, who knows?

I didn't mean to start a fuss over which brand is better. I just wanted to know what to feed little ones and big ones in the same coop.
I'm going to the local feed mill to try to get a lesser expensive feed that will work. Both Purina and Dumor are around $ 30.00 a 100 lbs. and I am going to try find some thing that's a little cheaper.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

BTW the little ones have been in the coop 9 days and the big ones are not picking on them as much anymore.

Bill

I pay $17 (including tax) per 100lbs.........

 

[BillT]

Quote:
I didn't mean to start a fuss over which brand is better. I just wanted to know what to feed little ones and big ones in the same coop.
I'm going to the local feed mill to try to get a lesser expensive feed that will work. Both Purina and Dumor are around $ 30.00 a 100 lbs. and I am going to try find some thing that's a little cheaper.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

BTW the little ones have been in the coop 9 days and the big ones are not picking on them as much anymore.

Bill

I pay $17 (including tax) per 100lbs.........

That would be WONDERFUL !!!