Feeding my Australorps

[SA gardener]

A week ago , I bought 4 ,16 week old, Australorp chickens. I initially tried feeding them chicken scratch and they barely ate it. Then I bought growers mash (since they still have 2 months of growing left) and placed it dry in their feeder. They ate very little (about 150 grams/5 ounces) between the 4 of them over 11 hours daylight. Though I did notice one chicken was eating wayyy more than the other 3 . I have been trying every day since to get them to eat the required amount (100 grams/3.5 ounces per chicken per day) with no success. Wetting the food doesn't help much. It increases their intake slightly but not significantly. I barely give them scraps or time outside the run to eat grass/insects/other food. Does anybody know what I should do to get them to eat more considering they are actually hungry but just refuse to eat sufficient feed (100 grams/3.5 ounces per chicken)

 

[Acre4Me]

Is the feed fresh? Check the feed sack- one of the bindings will list the mill date.

does the feed smell fresh and look uniform in color? If it is not fresh or bad in some way, chickens won’t eat it. I’m not sure if you are feeding crumbles or pellets or a whole grain feed.

they are still acclimating, however, after a week they should be increasing their consumption.

 

[SA gardener]

The feed is fresh and uniform. It's a mash so it has a powder like consistency.
I am really hoping that they will acclimate soon

 

[Acre4Me]

My guess is it’s different than they are used to. Maybe mix with wAter and toss some favorites on top, like grass clippings, seeds, etc to get them interested. My flock likes fairly wet feed when I mix with water. Others go for oatmeal consistency.

 

[keeper 1960]

bird seeds, sunflowers, hemp seeds, etc

 

[SA gardener]

Its been a week and nothing has changed. I think I'll feed them as much kitchen scraps as possible as well as any protein rich thing that they'll eat such as cooked chicken meat.

 

[iwltfum]

Sounds to me like they are pretty young still and might not be eating the full amount that you would expect a full grown laying hen to eat. You should try and let go of the expectation that a live animal will eat a precise amount of food per day - 1/4lb per day (for an adult hen) is an average and not necessarily a suggestion to try and coax them to eat that much every single day. My guess is they have been eating as much as they need to especially since they have had time to get used to their new food.