baby chicks wasting feed...

[ccarver80]

So yesterday I filled up their feEder which is just old gravity fed cat food dish probably hold a pound or two of chicken feed I noticed the other day it was gone almost instantly! I have 11 chicks right now in the brooder ranging between 2 & 3weeks...I reach my hand down there the other day and scraped away some pine shavings and I could have swore I could have filled a whole bag backup full of chick feed! they love to just go in the dish and scratch it out and throw it everywhere want to build a PVC pipe feeder but I don't know if they're big enough yet to reach it

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Yep. This is what chicks do. They bill the food out of the container and make a mess. I ended up using a raised rubber bowl from the feed store for mine. Other people make a "billing guard" out of hardware cloth and insert it inside the standard chick feeder.

 

[Nupe]

Raising the food dish as they grow helps as well as not refilling until they clean up their mess. Just keep the shavings dry and they'll enjoy themselves.

 

[Shewolf3808]

I modify my feeders for the chicks due to how much gets wasted.
I use a plastic lid from a throw away container and cut it out as a collar to fit around the portion inside the top of the feeder where the jar screws on. Make it snug or you can secure it with a rubber band



. This gives chicks room to feed but does not allow room for kicking the food out.

 

[pdirt]

I modify my feeders for the chicks due to how much gets wasted. I use a plastic lid from a throw away container and cut it out as a collar to fit around the portion inside the top of the feeder where the jar screws on. Make it snug or you can secure it with a rubber band . This gives chicks room to feed but does not allow room for kicking the food out.

This type of feeder, even without the modifications, will make a huge difference with feed waste compared to the gravity cat food container the OP is using. @ccarver80 you might try cutting a piece of flexible plastic or thick cardboard (with large holes in like th feeder shown above) and tape it over the feeding portion of the cat feeder.

 

[henless]

So yesterday I filled up their feEder which is just old gravity fed cat food dish probably hold a pound or two of chicken feed I noticed the other day it was gone almost instantly! I have 11 chicks right now in the brooder ranging between 2 & 3weeks...I reach my hand down there the other day and scraped away some pine shavings and I could have swore I could have filled a whole bag backup full of chick feed! they love to just go in the dish and scratch it out and throw it everywhere want to build a PVC pipe feeder but I don't know if they're big enough yet to reach it

I built mine a bucket feeder, but on a smaller scale. It worked great!

I used a 2 gallon bucket with 1 1/2" 90 elbow. That lasted a couple weeks, then built them a new one out of 2" pipe. Just today, I put a 5 gallon bucket with 3" pvc elbow for them. It sure has saved a lot of feed!