Anyway to harden the stool of my chickens? Recommended probiotics?

[Blooie]

I’m old and easily confused here. But if your chickens are otherwise healthy, bright-eyed, active, and eating well, why are you concerned about the consistency of their poop? If they have other issues going on, you don’t make mention of it in your original post. Chicken poop isn’t supposed to be hard. And normal cecal poops can easily be mistaken for diarrhea when in fact they are anything but.

i don’t give probiotics to healthy birds. Never made much sense to me to take a balanced system and un-balance it one way or the other. Too much of a “good thing” isn’t always a good thing either. There’s probably a reason the back of most of the packages on electrolytes, probiotics, Save-a-Chick, and Nutri-Drench say that they are for use in sick, injured, or stressed birds, for short term use only, and that clean, untreated water should also be made available to them during treatment. But then, I’m old and easily confused.

 

[SavvySilkieMom]

I like what bradymars says above, feed fermented oats. This would give them fiber they probably need. Another cause of loose poop is too much protein, and oats would lower that while supplying natural probiotics. Just fill a bucket half full of oats and cover with water. Your can start feeding them the next day, when they are just swollen, which increases palatability. As they bubble and ferment, their feeding value goes up and the fowl like them more. Be sure to keep water covering them and no mold or worries.

If you are raising Silkies, if they are maintenance mode most of the time—not laying eggs or molting—then 12 to 14% protein is a gracious plenty.

This is great to know! I had no idea that they only need 12-14%..
My grower feed is 19% So Should I mix this oats with the pellets to lower protein intake?

 

[Amer]

This is great to know! I had no idea that they only need 12-14%..
My grower feed is 19% So Should I mix this oats with the pellets to lower protein intake?

No, if they have a little too much it’s fine. Since it is grower feed. @Mossy Dell means adult birds, and even then, I’d say 16 percent is closer to what they need.

 

[David61]

Try PDZ sweet/ stall dry on the poop boards. It makes it like scoopable kitty litter. As far as feed, i feed Quaker oats as a treat to a bird with runs. I have corid on stand by for five days if... A lot of greens and free range can have that effect. https://sweetpdz.com/

 

[Al Gerhart]

Okay, chickens don't pee. They eliminate their waste water through their poop. I suppose the best way to firm up the poop is to stop giving them water and see how that works out for yah.

Seriously, why would you mess with a bird's natural elimination system by trying to constipate the poor things? Do some research on chicken diseases and after a few days you will realize that the average bird is packed with disease and is healthy only because its immune system is one step ahead of the pathogens. Jacking with their health because you are offended by some normal chicken....politician.... is asking for problems.

 

[centrarchid]

Increase fiber. Three types of dietary fiber I have tried make for a better turd that is easier to clean up. First shells of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (BOSS) where it is fed as intact seeds at a rate of 5 to 10% of the diet. Another has been Biochar / Agrichar / charcoal at 5% of diet that is wetted after the carbon is added as a topdress. Finally, mixing clay into feed at 5% of diet. The latter is hard to mix in uniformly yet the birds eat it pretty well.