Changing from medicated to non-medicated

[brightonchicks]

We have feed medicated chick starter from the start, they are now 5 weeks old and my husband wants to change over to non-medicated now so when they go to the next stage of feed what is left over can be feed to the rest of the hens and not be wasted. Is it ok to change? Have they been on it long enough to get the benefits of medicated? Thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

You always need to check the label on “medicated” feed to see what the medicine is. It’s probably Amprolium but I don’t like to use probably when talking about medicine. I’ll assume it is Amprolium but realize if it is something else what I say will not apply.

Amprolium is not an antibiotic. It does not treat anything. Its purpose is to interrupt the reproductive cycle of the bug that causes Coccidiosis. The problems with Coccidiosis is not when that bug is present but when the numbers of that bug get out of hand. It does not kill that bug in the dosage in medicated feed. It allows a few of the bugs to reproduce so the chicken can develop the immunities it needs to fight Coccidiosis later in life, but that bug has to be present for it to do any good. If the chicks have not been introduced to the Coccidiosis bug it has done no good. Amprolium won’t harm them, but the bug has to be present for it to do any good.

If your chicks have eaten dirt from where the other hens are, they have been introduced to any Coccidiosis bug that is present in your flock. It takes them two to three weeks to develop that immunity after they have been introduced to it. So if it has been three weeks since they ate some dirt from where your adult flock is, they should be OK if you stop medicated feed. Something that happens a lot on this forum is that people feed medicated feed to the chicks while they are in the brooder and are never introduced to that bug, then the medicated feed is stopped when they are first introduced to that dirt. The chicks then get sick.

According to the USDA there is no withdrawal period form eating eggs if the hens are fed feed medicated with Amprolium. It will not hurt your adult chickens.

 

[MeepBeep]

IMO no need to rush to drop the medicated feed if it's Amprolium, I feed it to the chicks until they are young adults and I feed my peas medicated feed for the first 6-8 months until they are of sufficient size to hopefully fend off a Cocci out breakout long enough for me to see signs and still have time to treat...

If you buy medicated feed by the 50# bag it should pretty much the same price as any equivalent grower feed, so there is really no financial reason to switch...

And as said there is no egg withdrawal period as it's not really a medication per say, it's an antagonist drug that blocks Cocci of the thiamine (vitamin B1) that it needs to reproduce...

 

[brightonchicks]

You always need to check the label on “medicated” feed to see what the medicine is. It’s probably Amprolium but I don’t like to use probably when talking about medicine. I’ll assume it is Amprolium but realize if it is something else what I say will not apply.

Amprolium is not an antibiotic. It does not treat anything. Its purpose is to interrupt the reproductive cycle of the bug that causes Coccidiosis. The problems with Coccidiosis is not when that bug is present but when the numbers of that bug get out of hand. It does not kill that bug in the dosage in medicated feed. It allows a few of the bugs to reproduce so the chicken can develop the immunities it needs to fight Coccidiosis later in life, but that bug has to be present for it to do any good. If the chicks have not been introduced to the Coccidiosis bug it has done no good. Amprolium won’t harm them, but the bug has to be present for it to do any good.

If your chicks have eaten dirt from where the other hens are, they have been introduced to any Coccidiosis bug that is present in your flock. It takes them two to three weeks to develop that immunity after they have been introduced to it. So if it has been three weeks since they ate some dirt from where your adult flock is, they should be OK if you stop medicated feed. Something that happens a lot on this forum is that people feed medicated feed to the chicks while they are in the brooder and are never introduced to that bug, then the medicated feed is stopped when they are first introduced to that dirt. The chicks then get sick.

According to the USDA there is no withdrawal period form eating eggs if the hens are fed feed medicated with Amprolium. It will not hurt your adult chickens.

The chicks haven't been with the flock, after they hatched I moved them and momma hen to a different coop and so they have only been with her so should we stop or not? Thank you for your help.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If the Momma hen came from your flock she passed on any Coccidiosis bug the flock has. She also gave them any probiotics the flock shares.

it doesn't matter if you stop or not. They should have immunity by now but eating the Amprolium medicated feed won't hurt them. Personally I'd finish the bag.

 

[brightonchicks]

If the Momma hen came from your flock she passed on any Coccidiosis bug the flock has. She also gave them any probiotics the flock shares.

it doesn't matter if you stop or not. They should have immunity by now but eating the Amprolium medicated feed won't hurt them. Personally I'd finish the bag.

That's good to know. Momma hen came from the small flock that I have but the eggs she hatched came from another flock. My hen went broody so we bought 4 fertilized eggs from someone that hatches eggs and sells the chicks. The chicks are doing great and my hen has been a awesome momma and I just don't want to do anything to change that so thought I would get advice about the feed. We didn't have a rooster, but now I think we may have 2 out of the newbies!