Baby chick feed

[tripleccc]

I need some insite on what i need to feed my chicks when i get them this weekend .
Any suggestions ------- scratch and what?

 

[Domd28]

We use chick starter, until they begin to lay. Then we switch to a higher protein egg layer feed. This year we are going to mix with the layer feed, cracked corn. We found the girls don't seem to eat well when we use the feed pellets so we use the crumbles.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ll assume you are talking about freshly hatched and chicks that will become a laying flock. Those both make a difference.

What you need is the appropriate chick feed. It’s probably called chick starter. If you look at the label for the analysis it will probably be somewhere around 20% to 24% protein and the calcium will be between 0.5% to 1.5%.

That’s all you need. Plenty of people do a lot of additional things, which don’t hurt anything, but it really can be that simple if you let it. Chick starter has everything they need.

They do not need scratch. I’d advise against scratch. If all you feed is chick starter, they do not need grit. Grit helps the chick grind up things in their gizzard like we use our molars in our mouth to grind up food. Starter is already ground up. They need grit to grind up scratch, so feeding them scratch just makes it more complicated. Also, when they are young they are limited in how much they can eat because of their size. The scratch is not as nutritious as Starter. They will get off to a better start if all they are eating is that high powered Starter.

 

[tripleccc]

Cool thanks!!! i think their around four to six weeks old is what the person told me

 

[ClovisMan]

You can feed the Chick Starter/Grower up until 17/18 weeks of age. Then switch over to Layer or Layena as they call it after that.