Alternative to chick starter?

[Egghead_Jr]

Don't get caught up with what the label on the bag reads. I feed non medicated Starter/Grower to adult birds. I also feed Turkey/Gamebird pellets to growing birds. The last one confuses store clerks once they realize I'm using it for chickens.

Get to know the basic nutritional needs of your birds. Educate yourself what each type of feed available to you is by reading the nutritional tag. Don't let the name on the bag dissuade you. If all the needs are met without excessive amounts of calcium (for actively laying) and without medication (most starters) and the proper vitamins, minerals and protein levels your good to go.

Everything is made of mash. The feed is ground and blended then made into paste to extrude long tubes that are cut to pellets. Crumbles are crushed pellets. Mash should be cheaper to purchase, I don't use it.

Grit is used as teeth. If you feed your birds anything that looks like it would benefit more if broken down (chewed) they should have access to grit for that. Access to the ground is usually all a bird needs to get their own small stones. Mash and crumbles don't require any grit. Feeding scraps, frige culls and free ranging does require grit. But then if they are free range they have access to small stones all day long.

 

[K813ZRA]

Don't get caught up with what the label on the bag reads. I feed non medicated Starter/Grower to adult birds. I also feed Turkey/Gamebird pellets to growing birds. The last one confuses store clerks once they realize I'm using it for chickens.

Get to know the basic nutritional needs of your birds. Educate yourself what each type of feed available to you is by reading the nutritional tag. Don't let the name on the bag dissuade you. If all the needs are met without excessive amounts of calcium (for actively laying) and without medication (most starters) and the proper vitamins, minerals and protein levels your good to go.

Everything is made of mash. The feed is ground and blended then made into paste to extrude long tubes that are cut to pellets. Crumbles are crushed pellets. Mash should be cheaper to purchase, I don't use it.

Grit is used as teeth. If you feed your birds anything that looks like it would benefit more if broken down (chewed) they should have access to grit for that. Access to the ground is usually all a bird needs to get their own small stones. Mash and crumbles don't require any grit. Feeding scraps, frige culls and free ranging does require grit. But then if they are free range they have access to small stones all day long.

Thank you for the detailed response! I guess I have some more reading to do. Though I have a tendency to read more than actually putting plans into action but I am working on that...lol.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good responses so far.
As for your mill's mash feed, if it is 20% protein and the vitamins and minerals suitable for chicks are added to the mix - it is starter feed. It just hasn't been pelletized and run through a crumbler, which is how starter feed is made.
Mash is very fine and if it has the correct amount of calcium, that's normally what caged layers are fed. They can pick it up with their trimmed beaks easier. Their feed troughs have a conveyor or auger system to distribute the feed to all cages.
I don't like mash because, in a normal poultry feeder, the chickens leave behind the fines, which is where the added vitamins, minerals, synthetic amino acids and fats end up.
Pelleted and crumbled feed is superior because the nutrients are bound up in the particles. There will still be fines but feed companies understand that and usually add additional to compensate for losses.
For years I didn't offer chick grit because my chicks always only ate crumbles.
One time I offered grit to some chicks that were a few weeks old and they devoured it.
Ever since then, I sprinkle a bit on their first feed or sprinkle it on the floor for the first week. Then I put it in a separate chick feeder.
Grit helps to develop the gizzard whether they get ground up feed or not.
I once sold some chicks to a friend. Several turned out to be cockerels. I told her I would trade for a pullet. Rather than put him into quarantine and return to the flock, I butchered him at the same time I butchered some of his same age siblings. My birds' gizzards were twice the size of his. That shows me the importance of grit for all ages.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wanted to add that many local mills, at least in my area, have stopped making their own chicken feed. They don't sell enough to use the vitamin, mineral, amino acid and fat supplements before they expire. Perhaps some mills don't pay attention to the expiration dates - but the good ones do.
If they have enough farmers buying bulk feed by the ton, it may be worth it for them to continue.

 

[K813ZRA]

I wanted to add that many local mills, at least in my area, have stopped making their own chicken feed. They don't sell enough to use the vitamin, mineral, amino acid and fat supplements before they expire. Perhaps some mills don't pay attention to the expiration dates - but the good ones do.
If they have enough farmers buying bulk feed by the ton, it may be worth it for them to continue.

Our mill seems pretty busy. Always farmers getting loads and loads of feed. And us suburbanites getting our chicken feed. However, we used to have five or six mills and now there is only one. I will have to ask questions.