Calcium feed and rapid growth of chicks

[Raunak Dahal]

Chickens are a favorite of our family. We brought 5 male chicks as pets and everyone is fine. However, the shopkeeper who we bought chicks feed from mistakenly replaced the normal feed with calcium feed. We fed every chicks the same feed and found that it was calcium. These feed has done shocking growth in chickens so far. Our chicks turned 2 month 5 days old today and every chicks weigh around 2 and 1/2 kg ie. around 5 and half pound each . This has created corncern in the family. And every chicks has even started crowing . They appear normal but we are a little worried . Is there anything we might want to worry about?

 

[Nomadicus]

Hello and Welcome to BYC! Glad that you have joined this community of poultry lovers.
What is the breed of those young roosters that you are concerned about and can you post a picture of them? The breed has a lot more to do with this than just calcium in the feed. It sounds like they got some layer feed from what you have described.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

I am not an expert however I don't believe calcium effects the speed of growth in chicks. I agree with @LTAY1946 breed has a lot to do with how fast chicks develop and grow. You possiblely have meat birds? Extra calcium won't harm chicks immediately however over time it can damage their kidneys.

Good luck with your flock and welcome to ours!

 

[Jenbirdee]

Hi there and welcome to BYC! I hope you were able to get the regular feed so you could stop using the layer feed with all that calcium but I agree I don't think that's what made them grow. Regular feed has plenty of calcium for their growing needs, the layer feed has way too much. It's meant for mature hens to help form eggshells when they are laying age

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

As mentioned the calcium doesn't have anything to do with the growth rate. It sounds like you have broilers or Cornish cross chicks on your hands. They are designed to grow extremely fast and put on a lot of weight for meat production. Can you please post pictures of them?

 

[SilverBirds]

Welcome to BYC!
As the others have said, calcium won't effect the growth rate of the birds. Sounds like you bought a bunch of meaties instead of a regular standard breed. Can you post pictures of them?

 

[Fuchsia]

Welcome to BYC! I’m glad you joined us.

 

[triciayoung]

Welcome to BYC. I have nothing to add.

 

[Lovely Lettie]

Welcome to our awesome community! Nice to meet you

 

[N F C]

Hi, looking forward to seeing pictures of your flock.