So my daughter is allergic to soy, wheat, and corn. She reacts mildly to eggs but I figured if I could take those other allergens out of the chickens diet she could be ok with eggs. Would it work to feed chickens mealy worms or red wigglers, non wheat grains, veggie/fruit scraps and their oyster shell calcium and grit supplements? Is there a way to know what they need percentage wise for each of those categories to be healthy? Or do you know of an chicken feed that's premade without the allergens?
Jenna
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Hi my daughter is too i get lots of different grains if you can find this book it helped us a lot ! Its called Back Yard live stock by Steven Thomas. I feed mine meal worms and they love them and red wigglers they eat.
I found it at the library tonight :) Thanks everybody!
I think it's hard to balance their diet without a commercial feed. I know it can be done but it's expensive and it seems harder than you would think.
You can buy corn and soy free feed (I'm not sure if it's wheat free or not) from Azurestandard.com or from a group buy here at VPA. Look up Scott Brown if you are interested in the group buy.
You can always supplement with meal worms but if you are being careful about allergens, you need to watch what you feed the worms too.
Others will know more than I about alternative diets, I'm sure. We feed our birds mealworms & they love them! Ours free range, so most of their food is from foraging bugs and plant matter.
I'd never thought about allergens going from a food source through the bird to a person. I get a stomach ache when I eat even a tiny bit of duck yolk, but I didn't used to in earlier years. I also went through a three year phase when I reacted to chicken eggs, but can eat them easily now. It came on when I had my first flock, then gradually left when we took a hiatus from chickens. Now I have 27 birds & no problems. Allergies & sensitivities are strange challenges!