Chicken Feed + Water = Crazy feeding frenzy... why?

[HeyHo]

Mine love their porridge too! Sometimes I add a sprinkle of sea kelp, a drop of nutri-drench, some finely crushed egg shells and/or a dollop of plain yogurt. I feed it in several small pet bowls I got at TSC although mine don't squabble over it like they do other treats. And I don't have a problem with the porridge freezing, it is usually gone too quickly for that!

 

[cmom]

I think the truth in this rather depends on how many chickens you have for a given amount of land and what grows and lives in the soil.
There are a variety of feeds available here. The problem is most are vegetable and grain based. Chickens are omnivorous by nature so I like them to get the odd mouse, cricket, ant, worm, etc from time to time.

This is true. For a backyard flock it wouldn't be difficult but I always have at least around 300 birds on several acres so it's not so easy here.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Here’s the weird thing. Mine doesn’t freeze. I don’t make it soupy. Hard to describe more fluffy and wet. Too much water and it does freeze. I microwave mine after it’s soaked. Fluff with a fork. You kinda have to play around with it... once you’ve got an eye for it you’ll know.

Okay I’ll take back the no freeze statement. It was -5 at 6:30a when I fed. I thought I’d wait till the sun was fully up before I cleaned & watered. At 9:30 it was a sunny -1 (lol) there was very little left. I could scrape it with my fingers. So the amount of water matters.
ETA: still loving my heated dog bowl waterer. Works great!

 

[paneubert]

Something that I don't think anyone else has mentioned is the possibility of using wet food as an easy delivery method for medications. Such as wormers or mite treatments. Especially if the birds see wet food as a treat and gobble it up.

I always have struggled with finding the perfect medication that can be dosed as a "pour on" (like flea meds you put on your dog), that actually has impact on a broad range of pests (seems many only kill specific bugs). I don't want to deal with squirting something in their mouth, and don't want to be injecting with a needle. Yes, there is the holy grail of Eprinex that kills a broad spectrum of bugs, but it is super expensive.

It seems that most if not all of the main oral drugs suggested for chickens could be mixed into some wet food, which solves the problem of not wanting to squirt it in their mouth one by one. As long as you make enough wet food that they all get a full crop/full dose!

 

[FarmerGirl101]

All of mine go crazy for it!

 

[lissalischicks]

Something that I don't think anyone else has mentioned is the possibility of using wet food as an easy delivery method for medications. Such as wormers or mite treatments. Especially if the birds see wet food as a treat and gobble it up.

I haven't used it for a specifically for medication delivery mites, worms, infections etc. I have added nutridrench, vitamins and electrolytes, herbs and even grit. When I give meds, if it is a water base I will get a piece of bread or something that will soak it up and feed it to them that way. I give a specific amount to each bird one by one. To me it is easier to control and I know how much they are getting. Having been said that I only have 10 birds and it is an easier to control them .... I don't think I could do my method if I had tons and tons of chickens.

Okay I’ll take back the no freeze statement.

LOL

 

[paneubert]

When I give meds, if it is a water base I will get a piece of bread or something that will soak it up and feed it to them that way.

Don't want to distract from this thread being about chickens loving wet food, but when I thought about this more, I wondered if you could rehydrate something really tasty like dried mealworms, essentially rehydrating them in the medicine. Seems like if there are directions/ratios for soaking the meds in food (with some water as well), would work the same for mealworms......hmmmm.....

 

[cmom]

Something that I don't think anyone else has mentioned is the possibility of using wet food as an easy delivery method for medications. Such as wormers or mite treatments. Especially if the birds see wet food as a treat and gobble it up.

I always have struggled with finding the perfect medication that can be dosed as a "pour on" (like flea meds you put on your dog), that actually has impact on a broad range of pests (seems many only kill specific bugs). I don't want to deal with squirting something in their mouth, and don't want to be injecting with a needle. Yes, there is the holy grail of Eprinex that kills a broad spectrum of bugs, but it is super expensive.

It seems that most if not all of the main oral drugs suggested for chickens could be mixed into some wet food, which solves the problem of not wanting to squirt it in their mouth one by one. As long as you make enough wet food that they all get a full crop/full dose!

There are things you can put in their water.

 

[paneubert]

There are things you can put in their water.

Yeah, and they are usually not water soluble! Or come with a warning from the person who recommends putting it in the waterer that "it will settle out really fast, so make sure you go shake it up every 30 minutes." Haha. If there was a truly water soluble med that wormed a broad spectrum of worm types, I would be all over it! The closest I have come to a true water soluble wormer is "WormOut Gel". Expensive and still super hard to keep in suspension in their water. And that is sad since it is MEANT to be put in their water.

EDIT to add: Now if we could get our birds to drink booze....that would make it a lot easier. Most drugs are easily soluble in alcohol. Haha. I have also had this issue in my saltwater reef tank. It is a really good idea to quarantine any new fish and treat for worms and parasites before you put them in your main tank, since once in your tank, it is impossible to get the parasites out without killing all your coral and live rock. Even the FISH drugs (well....they are the same drugs as the human and livestock drugs, just marketed to fish keepers) are usually not water soluble. Figure that one out! Haha.

 

[cmom]