- Aug 9, 2014
- 18
- 19
- 67
Hello chicken buddies, one of my RIR was laying a perfect egg, the other was laying an egg with really thin shells. After much observation, I noticed that they both ate the same thing. I had oyster shells out for them too. I would see them peck at the oyster shells as needed. So I read the forums and took a stab at protein.
After reading about meal worms, raising meal worms, I looked at other sources of protein that was fairly cheap and was not technically alive. I came up with dog food. My dog has very expensive fish/sweet potato dog food from Canada which is human grade. It is 38% protein and other yummy stuff. It is inspected by both the Canadian and US bakery association. The brand is Acana Pacifica, http://www.chewy.com/dog/acana-pacifica-regional-formula/dp/28679.
So I fed dry dog food to the RIR. One of my RIR still had the thin shell issue. Well upon more observation I noticed that the lead chicken would gobble up all the dog food and not let the other chicken with thin shells eat the dog food. OK, now I put the dog food in the blender and made dog powder. I add 1 T dog powder to 1/2 c layer food and add 1 cup water to make a homogeneous mush. This is their breakfast. I put breakfast out at night. When the automatic door opener opens the door in the morning, the two RIR jump out and gobble down breakfast. Because they are full, they take a nap, lay eggs and nap some more. The benefit to this is that the egg song is missing most days. So, now both RIR have perfect eggs.
I hope this story helps some people.
After reading about meal worms, raising meal worms, I looked at other sources of protein that was fairly cheap and was not technically alive. I came up with dog food. My dog has very expensive fish/sweet potato dog food from Canada which is human grade. It is 38% protein and other yummy stuff. It is inspected by both the Canadian and US bakery association. The brand is Acana Pacifica, http://www.chewy.com/dog/acana-pacifica-regional-formula/dp/28679.
So I fed dry dog food to the RIR. One of my RIR still had the thin shell issue. Well upon more observation I noticed that the lead chicken would gobble up all the dog food and not let the other chicken with thin shells eat the dog food. OK, now I put the dog food in the blender and made dog powder. I add 1 T dog powder to 1/2 c layer food and add 1 cup water to make a homogeneous mush. This is their breakfast. I put breakfast out at night. When the automatic door opener opens the door in the morning, the two RIR jump out and gobble down breakfast. Because they are full, they take a nap, lay eggs and nap some more. The benefit to this is that the egg song is missing most days. So, now both RIR have perfect eggs.
I hope this story helps some people.