Do Not Use Crushed Granite!!!

[Attack Chicken]

I just wanted to warn you all about crushed granite. I used to give my trio crushed granite on the side. Not I'm paying the price for it. One of my pullets is fighting for her life. Shes at the vet bleeding internally from the intestines because of the granite. I don't want any of you going through what I am right now.

 

[K0k0shka]

I was surprised to see “granite” of any kind as a product for chickens as it is one of the hardest rocks and has sharp as glass edges. It is also heavy which begs the question: does it void completely? I punctured my finger on a piece. I threw out the entire 7lb bag.

This thread is 17 years old and crushed granite (the kind sold specifically for poultry, with rounded edges on the particles) is absolutely fine to give to chickens. They need to eat rocks in order to grind their food up in their gizzards, and the harder the better so it withstands the grinding without falling apart.

 

[K0k0shka]

No chicken ever died for eating a stone in the whole chicken history.

Chickens die quite commonly from eating grit, but not in the way OP probably imagines it. Rather, it's when people don't do their homework on educating themselves on how to care for this new animal in their lives, and mix the grit with the poultry feed, causing the chickens to eat way too much grit (because they are gulping it down indiscriminately together with the feed). Overeating grit causes a dangerous buildup of rocks in the chicken's digestive system, the chicken gets clogged, and dies. I've heard horror stories from vets - like a chicken whose crop looked like the bottom of a fish tank, full of gravel and compacted...

So, the bottom line is still the same - to OP and to anybody else - educate yourself before speaking, and most importantly, before taking on an animal you don't know much about.

 

[Altairsky]

Grit is necessary for chickens. Any stone of the right size is good. No chicken ever died for eating a stone in the whole chicken history. In fact, birds have been eating stones since when they were dinosaurs.
Chickens get hardware disease if they eat screws, nails, iron wire, glass and any sharp object that is almost always man made.
So let's stop demonizing grit.

 

[FrostRanger]

I think in OP's case either
1. The vet was mistaken or OP misunderstood something the vet said

Or less likely

2. What happened to their bird was a freak occurrence

Either way, you're far far far more likely to run into issues not providing grit than providing it

 

[FrostRanger]

Any chicken that consumes too much grit just because it's mixed in the feed would have to be starving.
I've top dressed it on feed before (not my preferred method) and find the grit left behind in the bottom of the feeder.

I've seen problems from chickens NOT receiving grit, none from providing it.
I raise my birds in different areas depending on age, and we live on sand, so sometimes a container will run out of grit and I don't catch it for a while. Mine go through a lot compared to others reports, likely because they have no natural sources.
Their crops are usually what alerts me, especially the young ones. So I put out the grit and the next day their crops empty at a normal rate.
I tend to believe expert types who confidently state things, so I've tried leaving the chickens to "find their own" on two separate trials (different properties). On both occasions, I dealt with sour crop issues.
Coincidence? Maybe. Worth repeatedly testing? Nope.

Agreed, I always tell people who ask if they need to provide grit even if their birds have x or y that even if the answer is probably no, a small bag of grit is 8 bucks and never goes bad, I think that's a small price to pay for peace of mind. Worst case scenario is their birds never use it and all is well. Best case scenario is they use it and it prevents losses from crop issues. It just doesn't hurt to provide it regardless

 

[tlcmurphy]

So this raises an interesting dilemma. Many, if not most, commercial feeds already include grit. (At any rate, my Kalmbach Chickhouse Reserve does.)

So do we provide grit, or no?

I don’t see that it’s included in the feed you mentioned, and I haven’t seen it included in other feeds. Are you certain?
We provide grit and oyster shell separately, but he birds eat very little grit.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I was surprised to see “granite” of any kind as a product for chickens as it is one of the hardest rocks and has sharp as glass edges. It is also heavy which begs the question: does it void completely? I punctured my finger on a piece. I threw out the entire 7lb bag.

No idea what happened in the original story but granite is ideal specifically because it's hard and sharp. Think about why our teeth work - they're hard and sharp. Chickens will pick out pieces that are the right size for them and intake them for help in grinding down food. It must work well for them because the granite that gets pooped out is much smaller and very smooth.

 

[Altairsky]

mix the grit with the poultry feed, causing the chickens to eat way too much grit

Never heard of this. Chickens are smarter than most people think.
I used to give my chickens some feed that had oyster shell mixed in.
I quickly switched to a different feed because my chickens weren't eating the oyster shell, therefore clogging the feeder with oyster shell.
At a point, the feeder had just oyster shell and the chickens had no access to feed anymore.
They didn't die of overeating oyster shell. Because they were smart enough to not eat it.

 

[SourRoses]

Any chicken that consumes too much grit just because it's mixed in the feed would have to be starving.
I've top dressed it on feed before (not my preferred method) and find the grit left behind in the bottom of the feeder.

I've seen problems from chickens NOT receiving grit, none from providing it.
I raise my birds in different areas depending on age, and we live on sand, so sometimes a container will run out of grit and I don't catch it for a while. Mine go through a lot compared to others reports, likely because they have no natural sources.
Their crops are usually what alerts me, especially the young ones. So I put out the grit and the next day their crops empty at a normal rate.
I tend to believe expert types who confidently state things, so I've tried leaving the chickens to "find their own" on two separate trials (different properties). On both occasions, I dealt with sour crop issues.
Coincidence? Maybe. Worth repeatedly testing? Nope.