Feeding keets/Guinea fowl

[MissThing]

My guineas are about 8 weeks. I just finshed the bag of wild game starter feed. Can they move to chicken layer feed now, chick feed ( both of which I have) or go I need to go to the feed store and buy another bag of game starter feed? Thanks for advice.

 

[R2elk]

My guineas are about 8 weeks. I just finshed the bag of wild game starter feed. Can they move to chicken layer feed now, chick feed ( both of which I have) or go I need to go to the feed store and buy another bag of game starter feed? Thanks for advice.

I would switch to turkey gamebird grower. They are still a bit young to go to layer feed. Some high quality chick starter (20%+ protein content) would be okay. At 8 weeks I would not go lower than 20% protein content.

 

[MissThing]

Thanks. At what age can they be switched to chicken layer feed?

 

[R2elk]

Thanks. At what age can they be switched to chicken layer feed?

I would try not to give layer feed until they are at least 6 months old. I feed my adult guineas a 20% protein layer pellets. They do need at least a quality 16% protein feed as adults.

When they finish off the sack of grower feed you could switch them to an all flock feed. The reason to hold off on the layer feed unttil they are adults is to prevent the calcium in the feed from causing kidney problems in the juvenile males. Once they are adults they can handle the amount of calcium in layer feed.

Good luck.

 

[Victoria-nola]

I need advice also. My keets are 4 weeks old and I have 25 of them. I have been feeding them a 28% protein, super high nutrition feed (non-soy, non-GMO, with Fertrell's Nutri-Balancer). It is very expensive, though, and I need to make a less expensive choice if feasible (it's costing $37 a week and rising). The only game feed I can get locally is in small bags and only 22% protein and is not inexpensive although made of cheap ingredients.

I have bulk supply of field peas here in stock that I can mix into the more-affordable chicken feed that I've got (organic and high nutrition). I have both starter (20.5% protein) and grower (17%) feeds available to use directly or with field pea (19.5% protein) additions. I also have kelp in bulk and my own supply of Fertrell's Nutri-Balancer.

I am having trouble figuring out what is ok to feed the keets, whether I should maintain them for longer on the 28%, and when I can change and what I can change to. I would really appreciate some help on this.

We are establishing our guinea flock as partners for insect control on our farm here in Southwest Mississippi. We want them to live long lives and reproduce on their own so want to do the best we can for them to get a good start.


@R2elk

 

[R2elk]

I need advice also. My keets are 4 weeks old and I have 25 of them. I have been feeding them a 28% protein, super high nutrition feed (non-soy, non-GMO, with Fertrell's Nutri-Balancer). It is very expensive, though, and I need to make a less expensive choice if feasible (it's costing $37 a week and rising). The only game feed I can get locally is in small bags and only 22% protein and is not inexpensive although made of cheap ingredients.

I have bulk supply of field peas here in stock that I can mix into the more-affordable chicken feed that I've got (organic and high nutrition). I have both starter (20.5% protein) and grower (17%) feeds available to use directly or with field pea (19.5% protein) additions. I also have kelp in bulk and my own supply of Fertrell's Nutri-Balancer.

I am having trouble figuring out what is ok to feed the keets, whether I should maintain them for longer on the 28%, and when I can change and what I can change to. I would really appreciate some help on this.

We are establishing our guinea flock as partners for insect control on our farm here in Southwest Mississippi. We want them to live long lives and reproduce on their own so want to do the best we can for them to get a good start.


@R2elk

The recommendation is to keep keets on high protein turkey gamebird starter for their first 6 to 8 weeks. After that point turkey gamebird grower (normally 24% protein) is recommended. They can normally go on adult feeds when they are mature at approximately 6 months old. I feed my adults a quality 20% protein layer pellets but they can do fine on a good quality 16% protein feed.

I know it is very expensive to feed a non GMO organic feed. That is a personal choice, one that I do not choose to make. I feed a high quality feed but am not willing to pay the high prices for an organic feed. My personal belief is that there is a lot of misinformation posted to try to convince people to pay exorbitant prices for organic feeds. I also suspect that a lot of so called organic feeds are not actually organic.

Good luck.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Thank you very much. The feed is not organic, but it's really high quality. But, I've got kelp and Fertrell's here so I can add that myself. I just checked our local feed store (iinstead of TSC) and they have 50-lb bags of 26% gamebird feed for $15. So I'll go with that for now. The local feedstore has an idiosyncratic product line so I'm never sure what they'll have. Glad I finally checked.

Again, thank you.