Best layer feed for picky eaters?

[eyralis]

hi! I have a flock of bantam Faverolles who are really picky eaters. I've tried them on:
- Purina Layena Omega3
- Scratch n peck
- FM Browns

No success so far! They ignore the food and keep foraging around.

Has anyone ever had an issue of low appetite? Which feed do chickens most love?

Thanks!
Olivia

 

[ChickNanny13]

You could try fermenting their feed.
I feed my layers Flock Raiser (fermented) with Oyster Shells & grit on the side. I also ferment Chick Starter from hatch until at least 4 - 8 wks.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Well,they are clearly not very hungry. Do they free range? Our chickens don't really like the layer pellets. They prefer crumble from just Orschelns. But they get whatever we happen to buy. Also, we buy cracked corn, and mix it hal a d half, with the layer feed. They really like it. They will pick out all the corn first, but you just leave it u til they get hungry enough. We have a milk cow, and lots of milk, so I pour milk on the feed in a five gallon bucket, and let it set overnight, but they like it fine without! I would try getting the crumble, and maybe adding in some corn! They should like it!

 

[staceyj]

Or even just try soaking a bowl of whatever crumbles you have with warm water, this makes a mash and for some reason mine love it this way and now accept the dry as well.

My girls are so spoiled, they get a bowl of mash with a blob of plain yogurt on top for " breakfast" every morning.
-plus the dry which is hanging in a feeder right there as well.

(I don't have any feed in the coop. that way they are good and hungry by the time I go pop open their door to the run.)
They stay in the run for about an hour until I let them out to free range for the day. This way I know they've eaten.

 

[Fairview01]

For the most part a chicken will self regulate and in the long run will consume a healthy and balanced diet, unless cracked corn is involved. Chickens will always prefer to free range. It addresses their innate behavior to scratch and find food. Finding earthworms, insects and the like to them as compared to eating commercially prepared food would be equivalent to setting a rare T-bone steak and a soy burger in front of me and asking which one I prefer. Both are healthy but one is way more desirable over the other. Chickens also LOVE to graze on grass. If you want the to eat more commercially prepared rations, cut back on their free range time.

Chickens will always prefer mash or crumbles over pellets. Pellets do not contain small nuggets of corn to find as do the other two. What is perceived as a preference over pellets is a learned behavior to flick through the feed and find those morsels of corn. A lot of mash and crumbles are wasted. I feed both mash and pellets. I feed the mash out of a 5 gallon no spill homer bucket. When I fill it they fight over getting their heads in the 3" pvc elbows but after about 30 minutes the feeding frenzy is over because all that is remaining is mash. The mash is consumed no faster nor slower than the pellets.

Bottom line a hungry chicken will not starve itself to death. If whatever feed you chose is a balanced diet and it is not spoiled, moldy, rancid or in some other way became inedible before being offered they will eat it if the more desirable alternatives are restricted.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well,they are clearly not very hungry. Do they free range? Our chickens don't really like the layer pellets. They prefer crumble from just Orschelns. But they get whatever we happen to buy. Also, we buy cracked corn, and mix it hal a d half, with the layer feed. They really like it. They will pick out all the corn first, but you just leave it u til they get hungry enough. We have a milk cow, and lots of milk, so I pour milk on the feed in a five gallon bucket, and let it set overnight, but they like it fine without! I would try getting the crumble, and maybe adding in some corn! They should like it!

That corn is just diminishing your protein level and nutrients (vitamins and minerals) in your layer feed. Layer is only 16% usually, and corn is 8%. If you mix half and half that puts your protein at 12%.

Of course they eat the corn first, it's like a candy bar or chips to them. Side note, most feeds are already mostly corn. And while your girls may like it, you aren't doing them or you egg nutrient value any favors.

But you also are adding milk. That does have protein (and fat) and other vitamins and minerals in it... maybe you're somehow more balanced than it seems on the surface.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Feed them what you want. Nothing else, they will eat it.

Gary

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I just want to also note that I think this is a duplicate thread, as I have answered the same question on another thread...

Where my answer was.. what else are they being given?

 

[Titan Farm]

hi! I have a flock of bantam Faverolles who are really picky eaters. I've tried them on:
- Purina Layena Omega3
- Scratch n peck
- FM Browns

No success so far! They ignore the food and keep foraging around.

Has anyone ever had an issue of low appetite? Which feed do chickens most love?

Thanks!
Olivia

Low appetite isn't your problem because as you stated there still "foraging".
The feed that your using isn't the problem either, the problem is that there tell you what they want to eat instead of you telling what there going to eat.

Most chickens will never get there nutritional needs from foraging alone, they need a proper poultry diet/feed.
What I would do is this, put there food out for them and keep them penned up until the feed is gone and then and only then would I turn them loose in the yard and or offer any treats to them. They will eat there feed in do time.

In the 30+ years of raising poultry I have never had a "picky" eater, I also have never fed what my chickens "love" i have always feed what best for them.

 

[eyralis]

I just want to also note that I think this is a duplicate thread, as I have answered the same question on another thread...

Where my answer was.. what else are they being given?

Sorry! I wasn't sure which forum it was right for!

And: occasional dry mealworms, but otherwise they have full run of the yard.