9 week old chicks eating the layer food

[hinkjc]

Is it harmful for the young ones, who are 9 weeks old, to be eating layer food, instead of grower?

Easy answer: YES

Actually they are not getting enough protein! Layer food does not have enough protein for the young ones to grow, and I hear that with all the extra calcium in Layer food could cause kidney damage in the young ones...

Exactly!

This is a common mistake folks make with mixing different age groups and wonder why there are problems later. Feed is formulated based on nutritional requirements at given ages.

Jody​

 

[the simple life]

I know that when I switched my girls over to layer pellets they refused to touch it.
They freerange for an average of 10-12 hours a day, but they would follow me all over the yard to feed them.
I finally started mixing scratch in with the pellets to get them use to it and then tapered off.

 

[megnterry]

Thanks for all the input, I'll probably have to try giving grower food to everyone and supplementing the older guys with oyster shell. The younger ones have already gone thru a spell of chewing each other up and need space to wander. The buckeyes and sussex are really laid back, but the welsummers started pulling feathers and chewing on rear ends. Everyone seems pretty content right now. When they go to sleep at night, they go to their respective coops.

As I said before I'm new to chickens and had no idea what I was going to need. But I love these guys they are soooooo cool. They greet me in the a.m. waiting for their treats of course. If I sit on anything in the chicken yard there are few that fly up and sit with me. And I'm getting beautiful eggs from my cuckoo marans and americaunas and a diet egg from the lakenvelder weighed all of 27 grams.

Thanks again for your input. I'll keep reading.