Chickens dumping their feed? Help.

[mountainbunny]

Switching back to pellets seem to do the trick. No wasted feed today.

 

[lazy gardener]

IN the mean time, you can add water to those crumbles and feed them as a wet mash, or you can let them ferment. Many birds will object when changing feed if you go from a higher protein to a lower protein, which was the case here.

I ferment my feed, so it does not matter whether it's beginning form is crumble, pellet or mash. But, if I did not ferment, I'd certainly use nothing but pellet form.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I use a hanging gravity basket feeder that holds about 3 to 4 days worth of feed. It hangs from the roof and is right up next to the inner wall so it is stable. I've always used this set up with no issues. I recently changed their feed back from feather fixer PELLETS to their normal feed of layer CRUMBLES. Since changing back to crumbles from pellets they are somehow emptying the entire feeder in a day. There is no way they are eating that much in one day and I can see crumbles spilled all over the floor. I've never had an issue with this in the past and I can't figure out how they are dumping it out. Anyone have any ideas/suggestions? Thanks!

When mine developed a dislike for their feed after a change in mix they would stand in their dish and scratch it totally out with their feet or spoon it out with their beaks.

something with a feed guard like this might help(slow as heck website for me) https://www.grandpasfeeders.com

 

[mountainbunny]

Obviously no one here has spoiled chickens.
Thanks again for all the advice. They liked crumbles just fine until they got a taste of the pellets... And I was worried they weren't going to like the pellets I switched them to during molt!

 

[AllenK RGV]

Obviously no one here has spoiled chickens.
Thanks again for all the advice. They liked crumbles just fine until they got a taste of the pellets... And I was worried they weren't going to like the pellets I switched them to during molt!

Mine were recently wasting tons of food I had to put them back on a higher protein feed, as the lower percentage one just wasn't up to snuff!

edit- I hadn't seen @lazy gardener 's post or wouldn't have posted this.