Well, I got the wrong feed

I got pellets instead of crumbles and my fancy flock is too good for pellet food lol! Is there anything I can do to entice them to eat these cylindrical hell pellets? The squirrels don't even like it. I've thought about putting it in the food processor but I've got a 4 cup food grinder.. And 50 pounds of "inedible" feed.

I've checked in the bag and there's nothing strange about it. No mildew or mold.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Ju

kdolly87 said:

I got pellets instead of crumbles and my fancy flock is too good for pellet food lol! Is there anything I can do to entice them to eat these cylindrical hell pellets? The squirrels don't even like it. I've thought about putting it in the food processor but I've got a 4 cup food grinder.. And 50 pounds of "inedible" feed.

I've checked in the bag and there's nothing strange about it. No mildew or mold.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Click to expand...

Just Grind It Up

When they get hungry enough they'll eat pellets.
Pellets waste less feed and end up being more nutritious in the long run because all the additives (vitamins, minerals, amino acids) are added as a powder and bound up in the pellet. In crumbles, those additives end up settling to the bottom as fines and the chickens won't eat them.

Been there done that. Tried grinding, didn't have an appliance could cope with how hard they are so that was a fail.

So two things worked, went and bought some crumble and mixed the two together.

And on a cold morning, pour some hot water over to just moisten, let cool to just warm. Nice warm treat for them.

appps said:

Been there done that. Tried grinding, didn't have an appliance could cope with how hard they are so that was a fail.

So two things worked, went and bought some crumble and mixed the two together.

And on a cold morning, pour some hot water over to just moisten, let cool to just warm. Nice warm treat for them.

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Yeah I think I may have destroyed our food processor lol I'm gonna try the warm water with it! Thanks

ChickenCanoe said:

When they get hungry enough they'll eat pellets.
Pellets waste less feed and end up being more nutritious in the long run because all the additives (vitamins, minerals, amino acids) are added as a powder and bound up in the pellet. In crumbles, those additives end up settling to the bottom as fines and the chickens won't eat them.

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Oh that's great to know! I hope I can coax them into eating these

They won't starve themselves to death. I had one flock that didn't like them but eventually they relented. Chickens are voracious eaters. Without food, they'll eat bedding feces, leaves or whatever they can stick in their mouths. If nothing else is available, they'll start eating pellets and eventually prefer them.
They're also creatures of habit.

Be patient, chickens have no patients and will relent. It's a good idea to greatly reduce or stop treats all together for a week until they've grown accustom to the new form of feed. I move all birds over to pellet feed (not layer but an all flock type with lower calcium) when the youngest are around 12 weeks of age. Everyone is on non medicated starter/grower when growing out chicks. It takes a day or two for them to readily eat it but they wont starve themselves. Once accustomed you'll notice you go through less feed.

*I should note that layer pellets are only for laying birds. Extra calcium is not good for growing birds. All flock type feeds like turkey finisher and the like come in pellet form and normal calcium levels of about 1%.

As for wildlife eating the feed, think about using tamperproof rat bait boxes and chunx bait. Once rodents like squirrels, chipmunks, rats and mice get a colony going due to the feed source it's a nightmare. It's best to stop it from ever occurring. I find chunx poison effective and safe. I keep a tamper proof box right in the run. In three years only found one dead rodent on lawn in morning, tossed it in garbage. They usually go back to nest in ground or trees to feed young and all die there. There are other options but I find chunx very effective and safe. Nobody wants a boom population of rodents that take winter in your home. The stop to robbing of feed is only a small part of the equation.

Egghead_Jr said:

Be patient, chickens have no patients.

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This chicken has patients.

My chickens wouldn't eat pellets either, but I poured water over it and mixed it so it got kinda mushy and they LOVE IT. It's much cheaper than the food I used to give them and less mess