Chicks eating Guineas food and vice versa

[jlgoinggreen]

Hi,
I just bought 2 three week old Guineas and placed them in the brooder with my 1 1/2 week old Buff Orpington chicks.

The Chicks are eating the Guineas feed and the Guineas are eating the Chicks feed. Will this harm them? The Guineas and Chicks have never had anything but their feed to eat. I am concerned this will harm them, but not sure what to do. I don't want to have to buy another brooder lamp and separate them, but will if I have to. I was hoping they would get used to being together.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I don't think there's any other way to keep the chicks & keats out of each other's feed unless you separate them. They will try to eat anything that doesn't move away fast enough and nothing other than a physical barrier will keep their beaks out of each other's feed.

I think you have 2 choices:

1. Find a feed that both can eat, maybe Flock Raiser from Purina. You can call their help line & see if that would be suitable for guinea keats, I know that chicken chicks can eat it.

2. Separate them into 2 brooder boxes OR just make a divider in the middle of their box. Maybe you can hang the heat lamp over the divider so it gives warmth to both sides at once. Or just get another lamp, then you can justify getting more chicks, keats, ducklings, goslings, cygnets, peachicks and poults in the future.

I don't know how cool it is in your area, but here I often just use a desk lamp with a 60 watt bulb to keep my chicks warm.

 

[Lollipop]

Feeding guineas chick starter will result in slightly slower growth. Feeding chicks gamebird starter, like the higher protien guinea starter, will be fine untill the chicks are about 3 months old. The high protien feed will cause chicks older than 3 months to grow too fast resulting in leg and joint problems similar to heavy broiler breeds. In your situation, the chick starter is much better.......Pop

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Thank you! Starting a farmette can be a bit overwhelming. I am so glad to have found this site and it's sister site http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/.