Girls are grit picky?

[Beaker99]

I used to buy grit and hated the expense. The girls went through a 5 pound bag in 3 weeks. I went to the creek and collected a bag of gravel to save some cash. They don't like it. Container is still full.
Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[rayrose]

If you use a commercial feed, crumble or pellets, such as
Dumor, Nutrena, etc., you really don't need grit.

 

[Battlepants]

5 pounds of grit in 3 weeks sounds like they are consuming the grit as a substantial portion of their diet. This sounds like problems waiting to happen unless you happen to have a really high amount of birds.

Serving grit on my side involves taking about a tablespoon of grit and mixing it in with about 4 cups of food. And I do this like every 2-3 food fills. At the same time, I am also using crumbles, so technically they don't need grit, I just like to give them a little extra boost at the start. Then once they go outside, they don't receive grit at all since they will source it from the soil instead. Additionally, for the broody raised chicks that happened most recently, I entirely withheld grit and they are doing great. In my year here and about a dozen and a half chicks raised, I've probably gone through a half pound of grit.

If you really want to make sure they have a lot of grit, I would suggest setting them up a nice sand-bath area in the run/under the coop. This will double as a dustbath area and some grit for their system. Beyond that, just let them dig in the dirt - chances are, your local soil has all they really need.

 

[Beaker99]

Ok. Maybe that's it. They just found their own. Thanks.