Feeding keets

[CatWhisperer]

I just got my first guinea keets yesterday. Our local Tractor Supply doesn’t carry game bird ration so I will have to order some. What does anybody recommend? I also have a bunch of baby chicks and am wondering whether it’s ok to raise everyone together. I only have 1 coop, run, and chicken yard.

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

When I raised guinea keets last year, I just fed them regular chick starter and they turned out fine. Some people recommend feeding the keets a higher-protein starter like turkey starter, and you can certainly feed them that, but I think chick starter also works.
It should be okay to raise the keets and chicks together, but just make sure that you have plenty of space for them all, of course.
Good luck with your keets, and I hope that this helps.

Edit: This is really just my personal experience; I'm not an expert on how to raise guinea fowl, and chick starter was all we had. The guineas turned out fine, though, so maybe it varies from keet to keet. Sorry if this post was misleading.

 

[CatWhisperer]

I was told not to put them on pine shavings because they will eat them. What do you use?

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

I've been using shredded newspaper as bedding this year. Last year I used pine shavings for the keets and they seemed to be fine, but shredded paper can be made quickly -- and cheaply -- if you have a shredder.
We have a single keet, Spook, who just hatched on Thursday, and we've been keeping him in a box lined with a towel and some shredded newspaper.
If you're worried about the pine shavings I'd say that shredded paper would work, as would sawdust shavings.
Good luck with your keets.

 

[Unicornlife3316]

Guineas really need a higher protein feed - I start mine on the 28% gamebird starter. While they will live off the chick starter, they’ll do exceptionally better on high protein.

I would not raise chickens and guineas together, everything seems fine at first until the first breeding season when the males decide to mate the chickens and stress them or even injure them as they’re quite tougher than a rooster.

While I’m absolutely no expert, I have had a flock of guinea for over a year now and chickens now for about 4 months. My chickens and guineas free range together and the guineas leave them alone and everybody gets along fine.

I recently got new guineas who have been raised on chick starter and they’re eggs are much smaller and more thin shelled than my females, as she’s always been on the higher protein feed.

Just my two cents.

 

[Momma hen quack]

I use corn cobb bedding that I get at Rural King as it's very cheap and can be ingested. I fed my guineas chicken feed as I was also raising chickens, but Purina makes a Flock Raiser crumble and that's what I'm feeding my baby duck right now. Hope this helps.

 

[R2elk]

I just got my first guinea keets yesterday. Our local Tractor Supply doesn’t carry game bird ration so I will have to order some. What does anybody recommend? I also have a bunch of baby chicks and am wondering whether it’s ok to raise everyone together. I only have 1 coop, run, and chicken yard.

I do not recommend brooding keets and chicks together. The keets will grow up thinking that chickens are guineas too. Guineas have entirely different behaviors than do chickens and can very badly stress out chickens when they use their guinea ways on the chickens.

Tractor Supply carries Purina and while TSC does not normally carry the Purina Gamebird + Turkey Startena (30% protein) they can order it for you. Unfortunately you should have ordered the proper feed before you got the keets.

Those people that think it is okay to feed keets chick starter do not realize that it isn't just about the protein content. The game bird feed does have a higher protein content but more importantly it also has higher lysine, methionine and niacin concentrations which are necessary for the higher metabolic and growth rates that keets experience. Feeding them improperly can cause stunted growth along with other problems such as leg issues and shortened life spans.

If keets are on bedding such as pine shavings, they need to have grit available because they cannot digest them without grit and will get plugged up and die.

 

[casportpony]

 

[Unicornlife3316]

@R2elk says it so much better than me!

 

[CatWhisperer]

My TSC won’t order it for me so I had to order it thru Amazon. I put the chicks and keets on a piece of AstroTurf this morning, figured I could hose it off every day. Anybody done that? Having trouble getting hay at a reasonable price. Is there an age I could raise everyone together to safely before separating?