FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[ChickNanny13]

Beekissed - Great idea for the chicks! Didn't take pix of the plastic red trough (feed store bought) that Hubby raised & made a handle for carrying, similar to yours but love your 'natural' handle.

Leigti - Love the idea of using the tile for height.

BYC has so many with GREAT IDEAS!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I'm not posting in emergencies, because it isn't yet. So... After about 5 days on pasture my 4 week old chicks started having bloody stools, figuring cocci. It seem only in the morning, as through out the day I watch closely and have confirmed regular poos from each chick. All chicks seem normal, playing, eating, drinking, running away from me. So I figure I started treatment with Corid in water before symptoms got obvious (except poos).

My concern is... since I'm doing FF, is the Corid still strong enough in the amount of water they are drinking? I drain the feed well. But with this being morning 3 with blood poos (36 hours treatment), I would say I'm not seeing improvement. I may try to get to the vet for a float test today.

I am keeping things clean, but is there anything more I can do? And should I switch to dry feed while treating? Or increase dose in water slightly to make up for FF moisture?

I appreciate your experienced suggestions and thank you for your time. This is a great helping community!

 

[Jensownzoo]

I'm not posting in emergencies, because it isn't yet. So... After about 5 days on pasture my 4 week old chicks started having bloody stools, figuring cocci. It seem only in the morning, as through out the day I watch closely and have confirmed regular poos from each chick. All chicks seem normal, playing, eating, drinking, running away from me. So I figure I started treatment with Corid in water before symptoms got obvious (except poos). 

My concern is... since I'm doing FF, is the Corid still strong enough in the amount of water they are drinking? I drain the feed well. But with this being morning 3 with blood poos (36 hours treatment), I would say I'm not seeing improvement. I may try to get to the vet for a float test today.

I am keeping things clean, but is there anything more I can do? And should I switch to dry feed while treating? Or increase dose in water slightly to make up for FF moisture? 

I appreciate your experienced suggestions and thank you for your time. This is a great helping community!

In your case, I would definitely get the float test. If they have coccidiosis, okay then you can feed dry crumble while they're being medicated. But if it isn't then you may we witholding something beneficial (the FF) for no reason and not addressing the real problem.

 

[elaineinspain]

I mix chick starter to a peanut butter or mortar consistency, no straining is required. If stirring it each day, you don't have to keep the mix submerged in water. I'd only feed enough for them to clean it up..that way, you don't have to wonder how much they are eating or not eating. If it's gone, they are eating. If it's not gone, adjust the feed amount down until only a little dab is left in the feeder each time they are done eating.

For chicks, I'd feed a set amount twice a day if confined to a coop and run situation. If free ranged, I'd feed once in the evening after 3 wks of age.

Thanks for the tip Beekissed! I had tried my 7 week old chicks with FF but they weren't interested in it. (They aren't interested in anything except dry feed! Not even meal worms!!!!) I only brought them home from the breeder's 4 days ago. At the breeder's they only ate dry chick starter.

Now, after reading your advice to others, I'll make the FF to a thicker consistency, and I'll take away the dry chick starter and just offer them the same amount of FF.

 

[elaineinspain]

1. They absolutely will not starve themselves....don't know why folks are convinced this will happen, but it won't. They are born with an instinct for survival and will eat dirt or each other in the absence of available food, so presenting them a choice is the first mistake everyone seems to make.

2. Just present the FF and leave it there until they've eaten it. You don't have to sprinkle dry on top to "get them interested", you don't have to teach them to eat it no more than you have to teach a chick how to drink....that's all instinctive.

3. If using a heat lamp, keep the food away from the heat source or it will bake the top and keep them from being able to access the feed well. If it does tend to dry out on top, just stir it up and they will eat it just fine.

4. For every one person who has trouble with getting their chicks or chickens to eat the FF, there will be a hundred more that post they dug in like hungry pigs and never looked back, so it's probably more user error than picky chickens. They won't starve nor do you have to starve them in order for them to eat it...they just need to get hungry enough to try something different than their norm...once they try it, you'll have a hard time getting them to eat dry food. It's all in what they are used to eating and the options you give....give no options and they will get used to the "new" feed, which is just their old feed being fed wet instead of dry.

This advice has given me the courage to take away the dried chick starter and give my 7 week old, very pernickerty, only ever ate dried crumble before chicks the chance to eat fermented. Thank you.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

In your case, I would definitely get the float test. If they have coccidiosis, okay then you can feed dry crumble while they're being medicated. But if it isn't then you may we witholding something beneficial (the FF) for no reason and not addressing the real problem.

I took a sample to the vet. Cost was $25. Waiting for results. They said normally 20 minutes but their tech wasn't in. Said it could possibly be Monday. I told them that was too long.

 

[Jensownzoo]

I took a sample to the vet. Cost was $25. Waiting for results. They said normally 20 minutes but their tech wasn't in. Said it could possibly be Monday. I told them that was too long.

Monday would be ridiculous. They could send it out to the commercial diagnostic lab and get results the next day if they had to. I would call tomorrow and ask for results...the quality of the sample degrades over time so they def shouldn't be waiting more than 24 hours if they're doing it in-house. $25 is reasonable for a float, if you were wondering.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

They called a little while ago and confirmed. They said they could give me rx meds if I wanted to bring the chick in for an exam ($48 just for reference in case someone else wonders about cost, same as dog) or I could continue my own treatment. I do like them and feel lucky to have an avian vet in such a small town. At this point I think I should continue my course, but still wonder if I should make up the difference in the amount of dose to water ratio and somehow make up the difference for whats already wet in the feed since that is where some of their hydration is coming from and not solely the medicated water as directed? Does that make any sense?

I do not wish to do dry feed if I don't have to. But I also don't want to be giving them (essentially) a watered down version of the Corid only to have the cocci get stronger.

So, all chicks are still eating, playing, preening. If I wasn't so obsessive, I may not even know they were sick. I've seen maybe 10 red poos out of 10 chicks in 48 hours. All the rest were visually normal. Am I jumping the gun expecting to see recovery before it has even shown more symptoms?

Again, I know this is an FF thread, and my main question is actually about FF in correlation to dosing for water.

I actually love doing fermented feed. Even the process of dishing it up and mixing is cathartic or therapeutic. I enjoy doing for my animals.

Thanks for your time and input.
~Alyssa

 

[Jensownzoo]

They called a little while ago and confirmed. They said they could give me rx meds if I wanted to bring the chick in for an exam ($48 just for reference in case someone else wonders about cost, same as dog) or I could continue my own treatment. I do like them and feel lucky to have an avian vet in such a small town.  At this point I think I should continue my course, but still wonder if I should make up the difference in the amount of dose to water ratio and somehow make up the difference for whats already wet in the feed since that is where some of their hydration is coming from and not solely the medicated water as directed? Does that make any sense?

I do not wish to do dry feed if I don't have to. But I also don't want to be giving them (essentially) a watered down version of the Corid only to have the cocci get stronger.

So, all chicks are still eating, playing, preening. If I wasn't so obsessive, I may not even know they were sick. I've seen maybe 10 red poos out of 10 chicks in 48 hours. All the rest were visually normal. Am I jumping the gun expecting to see recovery before it has even shown more symptoms?

Again, I know this is an FF thread, and my main question is actually about FF in correlation to dosing for water.

I actually love doing fermented feed. Even the process of dishing it up and mixing is cathartic or therapeutic. I enjoy doing for my animals.

Thanks for your time and input.
~Alyssa

Well, why don't you keep dry feed available during the day, then at bedtime offer them enough FF to fill their crops up. That way they should be getting the appropriate amount of Corid by drinking water during the day since they wouldn't be drinking at night anyway (assuming it's dark).

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Well, why don't you keep dry feed available during the day, then at bedtime offer them enough FF to fill their crops up. That way they should be getting the appropriate amount of Corid by drinking water during the day since they wouldn't be drinking at night anyway (assuming it's dark).

I wanted to give a quick update since you were helpful and responsive. I've seen you helping out on other threads as well.

So I decided to adjust the dose of the Corid to account for the (calculated) difference in water in the FF. That is what my internal reasoning decided to do. This morning I haven't seen any blood poos and everyone is still normal and active.

Now I wonder... since the first 2 or so days was unintentionally dilute, should I continue my current dose for the full five days from it's start? or just the original 5 days including the diluted ones?

Thanks to you, and to the many posters who gave me the courage to start doing FF (even though I was just lurking)!