Feeding Plan Please!

[Myfanwy]

We've had chooks for a year now and I've hit my first hurdle with one chook quite sick. Vet said she was very thin so I'm nursing her hopefully back to health with boiled eggs and separation from the other chooks. I have five chooks in total (a rare old Dorking, two pullet Ancona's and two Isa Brown's one who is laying and the other who is sick) and think that I'm not feeding them enough. They can't get out of their small, but adequately sized, yard to free range at all as we bought a dog that won't stopping herding them. I've never read anything about raising chooks until now. This website is helpful. But I need a meal plan than won't break the budget and only provides special protein treats about once a week. I am only feeding them a scratch mix. I originally feed them layer pellets until my husband came home with scratch mix one week. Now they won't eat pellets at all. If I try to return them to only eating layer pellets, without scratch, which I believe is the better option, will they get hungry enough to eat it or will they just starve.

Please help with questions below:

1. Please help me with your meal plans. In Australia I haven't heard of Manna so please don't recommend it. I am happy to give cat food as a treat, or porridge, or rice, or eggs.

2. How do I reintroduce layer pellets?

(We'll be going into winter soon, last winter I only had 3 chooks and plenty of layer pellets were being eaten)

3. Food Serving Size/Weight.

Myf.

 

[Myfanwy]

Myf here again,
The vet gave my sick chook antibiotic, multvitamin, and worming injections. I've have also now wormed the rest of the flock.

 

[Den in Penn]

Welcome to BYC.

1 My meal plan is free choice. They have access to their feed all the time. Treats are what ever produce isn't up to standards from my garden. Your right that scratch doesn't give them a complete diet. Many raise meal worms for an added protein treat.
2 To switch them back to the pellets. Use tough love. Don't feed them anything else until they eat their feed. They don't have the will power to out last you and they won't stave themselves.
3 A chicken will eat between 1/4 to 1/3 lbs of food a day. Bantams will eat a little less and a Jersey Giant will eat more. Wish I had a conversion to metric for you.