Molting hens lost food appetite. Normal?

[Sandy80]

Looking for information & advice for my 9 hens. The girls are 18 months old & going through their first molt. They have drastically reduced amount of layer food they eat at about the sane time I noticed them losing feathers. I historically gave them organic layer food (16% protein) & just this weekend switched to 18% protein pellets. They love their meal worms &when they are in the backyard the bugs they find in the grass.

Is loss of appetite a side effect of molting hens? Any recommendations ? Thanks in advance.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hens out of production will eat less feed. It's good you switched to a higher protein feed, it will help them molt easier. The extra calcium in the layer isn't good when they aren't laying either. I don't use a layer anymore.

 

[Folly's place]

I feed an all- flock feed to everyone all year, so there's never a change. Your birds will do better on the all-flock feed, with oyster shell fed separately.
They may be eating less because of the molt, or because it's a food change. Make sure you always check the mill date on each bag of food, and only buy fresh!
Are they getting too many meal worms and goodies? Don't overdo the yummy stuff!
Mary

 

[rebrascora]

This year I saw a drastic drop in feed consumption when my girls moulted. They were on layer as usual but I decided to treat them to a grower (significantly more expensive) they have had before, to see if that would tempt them... it didn't. They would eat as much spinach as I cared to hang up for them but they weren't even that enthusiastic about mixed corn...... they did get very excited about meat scraps though so I would encourage you to treat them with a bit of meat or fish or cat food a couple of times a week. My girls were doing really watery poops because they were eating mostly greens.... it was almost like they were giving themselves a detox. They lost a lot of weight.... not just feathers but physical mass. I know because they took to roosting on the edge of the nesting boxes at the same time, so I was lifting them onto the roosts every night and they were light as a feather. Eventually they started eating again after their feathers came in and they are now happily back on layer feed and wolfing it down and putting on weight, but like you I was concerned for a while.
This is the first year that I have noticed such a drastic drop in feed consumption but it is also the first time I have had a coop of just older layers. Previously at moulting time I have also had a number of cockerels and pullets and a flock master in with the moulting girls and they obviously continued to eat well, so that was buffering the effect of the layers not eating I would guess.

 

[sourland]

I would guess that the drop in feed consumption is related to the change in feed.

 

[Folly's place]

Life is much easier when there's no need to change the diet!
Mary

 

[rebrascora]

Mine stopped eating before I changed their diet and I really only got the grower because I was so worried about how little they were eating and thought it might tempt them. They were much less enthusiastic about mixed corn too, which remained a constant.

 

[Sandy80]

Hens out of production will eat less feed. It's good you switched to a higher protein feed, it will help them molt easier. The extra calcium in the layer isn't good when they aren't laying either. I don't use a layer anymore.

Thank you for taking time to reply. When you say you don't feed layer feed anymore, what kind of feed is there if it's not grower (for babies) or layer?

 

[Sandy80]

Mine stopped eating before I changed their diet and I really only got the grower because I was so worried about how little they were eating and thought it might tempt them. They were much less enthusiastic about mixed corn too, which remained a constant.

Thank for sharing your experience. My hens too virtually stopped eating prior to me changing their food to the higher protein ... the change to 18% was 2-fold: 1) I read about importance of protein during the molt and 2) I thought the change in food would entice them to eat (it didn't).

 

[Sandy80]

I feed an all- flock feed to everyone all year, so there's never a change. Your birds will do better on the all-flock feed, with oyster shell fed separately.
They may be eating less because of the molt, or because it's a food change. Make sure you always check the mill date on each bag of food, and only buy fresh!
Are they getting too many meal worms and goodies? Don't overdo the yummy stuff!
Mary

Thanks so much for your insight. Who knew there was such a thing as a 'good if used by date' ! Great advice - I will pay attention to that go forward. by the way - What is an 'all flock' feed? I do give my girls oyster shell.