Can chickens eat too much

[JacinLarkwell]

Can chickens eat too much? I have a Cockerel that's almost 6 months old now and he worries me. He's always hungry and when he was at fair a few weeks ago, he would honestly go through like 3 cups of feed himself and be crying for more. He actually cries when he sees me and I don't have door for him. At one point I had to stop because his crop was bigger than his head and he still was eating. He's almost adult weight, if not actually starting to get past it, and it's just worrying me....

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Also no, before I'm asked, I k ow for certain he's not a meat breed

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

Does he have access to feed all day or does he have certain feeding times? Their crops get bigger than their heads all the time, chicken heads are quite small actually. You won’t know his adult weight until he is an adult. What breed is he? He might just be a large bird.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Does he have access to feed all day or does he have certain feeding times? Their crops get bigger than their heads all the time, chicken heads are quite small actually. You won’t know his adult weight until he is an adult. What breed is he? He might just be a large bird.

At home he gets about 2 cups a day, 1 in the morning, 1 at night. Everyone else is in a seperate enclosure and they each get about a cup and seem fine

At the fair he had to have food at all times because otherwise people would report we were starving our birds.

He honestly feels around 10 pounds and is a naked neck

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The crop thing makes me feel better though. Maybe it just looks so huge cause he has no feathers on it

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

At home he gets about 2 cups a day, 1 in the morning, 1 at night. Everyone else is in a seperate enclosure and they each get about a cup and seem fine

At the fair he had to have food at all times because otherwise people would report we were starving our birds.

He honestly feels around 10 pounds and is a naked neck

Does he get adequate exercise? What are you feeding him? Is he under lots of stress?

 

[NatJ]

It's usual to have food available to a chicken all day, and trust them to eat the right amount. Normal, healthy crops can seem enormous sometimes.

What are you feeding him? That may affect how much he needs to eat.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

He gets layer feed (same as every other bird I have), scrambled eggs and some mealworms every other day. I was hoping that the fat from those might help with his eating. He has a small coop all to himself that he shares with a hen for a few hours a day and he walks around with the birds around his coop that free range.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I have another naked neck male that's about 7 months that eats just the 2 cups of layer pellets and doesn't have any problems. He weighs about the same too

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

He gets layer feed (same as every other bird I have), scrambled eggs and some mealworms every other day. I was hoping that the fat from those might help with his eating. He has a small coop all to himself that he shares with a hen for a few hours a day and he walks around with the birds around his coop that free range.

He might be suffering from side affects from the layer feed, or it might be because layer feed doesn’t have enough protein so he has to eat a lot. The second option seems more plausible to me.