chicken food

[dorothy12]

is there any way to make chicken food?????

 

[realsis]

Sure you can make your own feed HOWEVER, you need to take under consideration the chickens nutritional needs as well as the balance of fatty acids and vitamins and minerals.it can be very complex. You might want to look at a book on nutritional needs for poultry. I just bought a book myself called nutrient requirements of poultry off amazon.com. I'm interested in this myself but I am not making my own feed. I would be to worried about a imbalance or defiency happening until I've learned more .A lot more.my flock had developed a vitamin defiency before on store bought puriena layer feed. I've since switched to a all organic non soy non GMO feed from countryside organics. They seem to be doing well on that thank God. But so much comes into play with nutrition and vitamins and trace minerals. If your interested in doing it I would suggest starting by reading about the nutritional needs. Then make your decision once you have learned about all that. Making a balanced feed is more complex then you would think it would be. And can be expensive. I hope this helps and wish you the best. You will also have to remember they have different nutritional needs at different life stages. As I said it can get complicated but I would start by getting a good book on poultry nutrition.

 

[pdirt]

x2 what realsis said. Briefly I was considering making my own mix of feed. But once I began to understand the complexities of chicken nutrition AND figured how much in bulk I would need to buy in order to make the cost savings worthwhile, I've so far changed my mind. It's just easier and cheaper to buy feed.

So instead we've started fermenting their feed...it makes them waste less feed and it also increases to nutrition quality as well as boosting immunity with probiotics. There's so many good benefits from the fermented feed, for so little cost (no $ cost, just a minor amount of time), that the cost/benefit ratio blows making your own feed out of the water, IMO. At least for a backyard flocker.

 

[dorothy12]

can u buy wild or pet bird food

 

[realsis]

You will want a diet that is specifically made for CHICKENS. As I said get a complete age appropriate feed for them. You will run into trouble if you feed other than what is formulated for chickens. Chickens require a SPECIFIC formulation for feed. They will suffer if not given that. I hope this is clear. They should be eating a COMPLETELY feed formulated for chickens and for their ages.let me give you a example. Chicks need chick feed, at about three months old you will switch to a grower feed with about 18 to19% protein, then at around six months old they will eat a layer feed at about 16 to 17% protien and extra calcium for eggs.do NOT switch the feed to layer unless they are at least 6 months old because the extra calcium will damage their body. So if you follow these instructions your birds will be just fine. And please remember they need a COMPLETELY AGE appropriate CHICKENS FEED. Babies eat CHICK FEED, growing birds eat GROWER, and laying birds eat LAYER. ALL are specifically for CHICKENS. It's not one size fits all. The chicken feed needs to be changed in formulation as they grow. So if you start out with chicks you will get a complete CHICKENS feed. As they grow you will switch to a GROWER chicken feed, then after 6 months you will switch to a LAYER chicken feed. YOU DO NOT WANT TO FEED WILD BIRD FEED OR PET BIRD FEED. THEIR DIET NEEDS TO BE FOR CHICKENS. Hope this helps out.and I wish you the very best for you and your flock.

 

[LindaB220]

Google/book and search for poultry and chickens. You'll pull up tons of old books that are free and you can download and read. Back in the day when people actually made up their own feeds. Good reading.

 

[pdirt]

can u buy wild or pet bird food

Why would you want to do that? It would be far more expensive than chicken feed and could be deficient in important nutrients.. Is chicken feed not available for sale where you live?

 

[dorothy12]

yes ,there are no feed stores around here

 

[LindaB220]

yes ,there are no feed stores around here

I'm wondering if you're asking if there is a food to feed chickens that wouldn't be grain based? If you just had a few chickens you could feed them rolled oats from the grocery store. Leftovers from dinner. Some meat chunked up and veggies. Corn meal or cornbread. A can of tuna occasionally. They need about 16% protein to lay eggs. Put out grit for them. Sand and small rocks. If need be, find a way to go to the next town to find some type of grain. Layer usually for pullets. Scratch is cheap and is a mixture of cracked corn, wheat and etc. If you just can't get there, try dry catfood along with all the other things. Rice is good and cooked potatoes. Is this what you are looking for?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

yes ,there are no feed stores around here

Sarcasm? I think maybe knowing why you are asking would help direct the answers a bit better - whether it's a cost thing, a desire not to purchase commercial feed or there truly is nowhere to purchase feed.