Feeding laying feed to meat birds temporarily?

[LibbyR]

I ran out of our normal meat bird feed and the store doesn’t have any so I was wondering if I can feed my meat birds some 18-20% lay feed I have laying around. I know it might slow their growth but I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t kill them. Thanks!

 

[snow5164]

For a day or two? They eat an awful lot ..

 

[LibbyR]

For a day or two? They eat an awful lot ..

. Yup just for a day or two until I can find some. I know that. I have enough for 2-3 days.

 

[snow5164]

I live in a remote area ,I feel for you , I would water down the layer with oats or any grains or Cheerios you have in the house, give them veggies and bread , just to dilute the layer ,

I’m not really sure how this will turn out , meat birds are different creatures for sure ,

Good luck

 

[Ridgerunner]

By meat birds do you mean Cornish X, Ranger types, or dual purpose? How old are they and for how long? What is the calcium content of that layer feed? How much low calcium stuff do they eat that is not that feed, do they forage for a significant part of their food?

The risk of feeding a high calcium layer feed to growing birds is that it can mess up their kidneys and/or liver. But one bite won't kill them. It's the total grams of calcium all day and even then it is an average over several days. If they forage for some of their food the grams add up slower.

For two or three days I would not worry about it. If that is all they eat then I would not want to go much longer unless the feed was a minor part of what they eat overall.

 

[LibbyR]

By meat birds do you mean Cornish X, Ranger types, or dual purpose? How old are they and for how long? What is the calcium content of that layer feed? How much low calcium stuff do they eat that is not that feed, do they forage for a significant part of their food?

The risk of feeding a high calcium layer feed to growing birds is that it can mess up their kidneys and/or liver. But one bite won't kill them. It's the total grams of calcium all day and even then it is an average over several days. If they forage for some of their food the grams add up slower.

For two or three days I would not worry about it. If that is all they eat then I would not want to go much longer unless the feed was a minor part of what they eat overall.

They only eat the feed.They’re about 8 weeks old and won’t be processed till 13-14 weeks and they are Cornish Roasters which are slower growers according to the hatchery . But they were just switched from 18% starter to 22% grower feed a few weeks ago. I think the % of calcium is 3.4 minimum and 3.9 max in the layer feed. I dont know the % of the meatbird feed. I’d just be feeding them it till I’m able to get them some grower later today.

 

[JDN]

None of this stuff is going to poison birds in the short term.

Its about the long term residual effects that you'd be concerned with. At 8 weeks you might be ready to process anyway, and it isn't worth buying another bag of food. Just thinking out loud.

And if you're tlaking about a period of several hours, they can go without food, period.

 

[LibbyR]

None of this stuff is going to poison birds in the short term.

Its about the long term residual effects that you'd be concerned with. At 8 weeks you might be ready to process anyway, and it isn't worth buying another bag of food. Just thinking out loud.

And if you're tlaking about a period of several hours, they can go without food, period.

They aren’t being processed for another 5 weeks (they’re actually going to be sold for 4-H and our fair isn’t till then) so I have to buy feed. I just wanted to make sure doing it for a day would be okay.

 

[LibbyR]

Everything’s well as I was able to find some all flock feed for the time being. Thanks for all your help everyone!