Anyone else have picky eaters?

[Baby Chick Mom]

My 6 hens hated the Kalmbach Organic as well!

 

[thecatumbrella]

My 6 hens hated the Kalmbach Organic as well!

And it smells so fresh and good!

I tried a new bedtime snack that had little bits of dried carrot peel. They avoided it like the plague. But again, earlier today they were eating GIANT CHUNKS OF WOOD.

Whatever...

 

[Happy hen lover]

Right now, they're grounded with no treats for at least a week. But normally I do limit them, exactly as you said (even have my handy 3/8 cup for 3 birds!)

Do chickens tantrum? They're not handling their treat ban very well. I just went in to clean up poops, and one had the nerve to fly at my head! EAT YOUR FOOD!

Brats!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sometimes you have to out-brat them! Generally ours get crumbles but once in a while only pellets are available. So ... we feed them a "blend," combining pellets and crumbles in their feeder. The eat both since they can't very well separate them out. In this way, if necessary, we have successfully transitioned them to JUST pellets, if our feed store was slow getting crumbles in for a while. But there is no doubt, they prefer the crumbles! Even though it's the exact same formula!

 

[Demarvell]

I don't understand how an animal with a handful of tastebuds can be so selective when it comes to chicken food. There's no rhyme or reason to it either, especially with 95% of commercial feed ingredients starting with "corn, soy, wheat, etc."

My girls enjoy Nutrena Chick Crumble and All-Flock Pellets, but REFUSE the Layer Crumble. Dumor Organic Layer, which I imagine can only be organic food waste, is their absolute favorite. Kalmbach Organic, despite smelling fresh and delicious, must be figurative poison after their 24-hour hunger strike.

Please tell me I'm not the only one. What commercial foods do your girls like? Any insight into their chicken psyche?

My gold sex links will eat anything that doesn't eat them first.

 

[PlagueDoctorFarms]

Yes, she ONLY wants the long seeds from the scratch feed

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, she ONLY wants the long seeds from the scratch feed

Very pretty bird. What breed?

 

[SueT]

My flock love Kalmbach 20% Flock Maker. I always check the mill date before buying, to make sure it’s very fresh. They used to get Purina 20% Flock Raiser, which they also like. The higher protein feeds seem to be more palatable.
Btw, both Purina and Kalmbach use the Julian calendar dates on their bag. It starts with the 2 digit year, 23, then has a # from 1 to 365 to denote which day it was milled. Today, for example, Dec 10, would be day 344. If I were to get a bag with a number higher than 300 today, I’d be pleased.
I have often quoted the BYC rule of thumb that treats should make up less than 10% of the diet. Recently I realized I was actually giving my flock way more than 10% in scratch feed, and they were leaving more regular feed uneaten. As soon as I cut back, they began eating all their feed. I’ve increased the amount of feed to make sure they get all they want. I save the uneaten when I clean their bowls at the end of the day and put it out in one of the bowls the next day.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I once had a sub-flock that would not eat anything but their milled commercial food snd a little scratch. I realized I had not started them on scraps when they were babies! They would not look at a grape, strawberry or bit of lettuce! So my next batch of chicks got started early on worms, spaghetti, lettuce ... daily scraps! Not much, just enough to rouse their interest and teach them that food can look like ... well, anything!

 

[thecatumbrella]

Btw, both Purina and Kalmbach use the Julian calendar dates on their bag. It starts with the 2 digit year, 23, then has a # from 1 to 365 to denote which day it was milled. Today, for example, Dec 10, would be day 344. If I were to get a bag with a number higher than 300 today, I’d be pleased.

I hate this so much. I get I'm new to this dating system, but I returned a perfectly good bag of feed because I thought it was milled in February!