Pullet food for 6 week old chicks?

[brierose3]

Our chicks are about 6 and a half week old and we have run out of chick starter feed. As it is christmas/new year time, the feedstore wont be open for about a week. We have a bag of pullet food but is it too early to feed them that?

 

[justplainbatty]

Our chicks are about 6 and a half week old and we have run out of chick starter feed. As it is christmas/new year time, the feedstore wont be open for about a week. We have a bag of pullet food but is it too early to feed them that?

Looking at my bag of chick starter, it says feed from 0 to 8 weeks. Protein is at 18% and calcium between .75 and 1.25. If pullet feed has less protein and more calcium you may want to order one last bag of starter on line just to be safe. If both kinds are really close in content then, it should be ok. Hope this helps.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Our chicks are about 6 and a half week old and we have run out of chick starter feed. As it is christmas/new year time, the feedstore wont be open for about a week. We have a bag of pullet food but is it too early to feed them that?

I've started birds at such an early age and many of them became chronically ill and eventually died. I have never found out if it was food related, but it is best to switch your birds from 14-22 weeks. I would exhort you to stick to chick starter until they are ready, as the increase of protein has been known to cause kidney problems. You might want to use the layer pellets for a few days until you can buy chick starter. I hope this helps!

 

[MeepBeep]

One week of feeding a calcium fortified lower protein food likely will not cause any significant problems, but you should return to the starter/grower as soon as possible and keep them on that until they are actually laying... You can also toss in some dry cat food to boost the protein levels closer to starter/grower, if you have some available...

 

[justplainbatty]

I've started birds at such an early age and many of them became chronically ill and eventually died. I have never found out if it was food related, but it is best to switch your birds from 14-22 weeks. I would exhort you to stick to chick starter until they are ready, as the increase of protein has been known to cause kidney problems. You might want to use the layer pellets for a few days until you can buy chick starter. I hope this helps!

I agree, I keep my chicks on starter until 22 weeks. Also, pellets for such young ones? I would smash them up, they're kind of big. Something weird too, one time I sent my hubby to get the chicken food and he got pellets by mistake. My chickens (plenty old enough) refused to eat them! I don't know why but the pellets became wild bird food out in a field and I HAD to go get them crumbles! Stubborn birds!