Bad breath

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Fermented feed is not always the panacea folks build it up to be. I had a friend who lost several birds and thankfully, was able to save a few, that developed severe sour crop due to fermented feed. It was verified by necropsy, before someone jumps on me over this, that the fermented feed was the cause. She called me at night in the middle of the crisis holding dying hens. I do not believe that an animal with a crop should be fed a fermented feed, not the way these people are doing it, letting food sit in wet conditions to sour and, well, mold. Chickens can die from moldy feed. Their crops can literally just quit working.

Bad breath like that is usually sour crop from feed fermenting in the crop because it is sitting in there. Fermented feed continues to ferment in the crop, it doesn't stop just because they eat it. Just one step too far and you have mold and they will die if you don't catch it soon enough.

I refuse to feed my chickens FF too. It's a fine line between fermented and moldy in my opinion. I have always thought that to avoid problems with chickens everything needs to be dry, from coop, and bedding to feed. My chickens live good long lives eating plain old ration, scratch, free range and scraps. I go out of my way to keep things dry.

 

[feather13]

I refuse to feed my chickens FF too. It's a fine line between fermented and moldy in my opinion. I have always thought that to avoid problems with chickens everything needs to be dry, from coop, and bedding to feed. My chickens live good long lives eating plain old ration, scratch, free range and scraps. I go out of my way to keep things dry.

Thank you! Going to take your advice. Luckily, we've never had trouble keeping things dry in southern California. Going to go back to the same dry food formula as you and see if the bad breath can be resolved.