Goat feed for chickens

[Kt S C]

Today I had two different people tell me they are switching their chickens over to goat feed with seeds and oats mixed in as their seems to be a problem with chicken feed now and hens have stopped laying. Anyone know anything about this?

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

There are a a number of threads about this if you search the forum. It's not a good idea to feed goat feed to chickens, it is not nutritionally balanced and will cause issues. Is it a problem with THEIR feed or did they just hear about the feed being bad? Cos if it's the feed they are using, @Aunt Angus is looking for someone to send in feed for testing to quell these misguided theories that are swirling around. Maybe you could get some to send them?

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

@Aunt Angus I edited my post to tag you about the feed

 

[Kiki]

Today I had two different people tell me they are switching their chickens over to goat feed with seeds and oats mixed in as their seems to be a problem with chicken feed now and hens have stopped laying. Anyone know anything about this?

Poor birds aren't going to be getting a balanced diet. They'll end up suffering.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Thanks. I'm fairly certain there will be no resolution even after the tests are done. I do know that I'd rather keep my hens healthy for a long time. Mine are more than just egg producers. As such, I wouldn't feed goat feed even if mine stopped laying (which is actually pretty normal come late summer/early fall). Goat feed is sweetened (which is why it's called sweet feed) and has lots of added copper, among other things. Eggs are not as important to me as my hens.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Today I had two different people tell me they are switching their chickens over to goat feed with seeds and oats mixed in as their seems to be a problem with chicken feed now and hens have stopped laying. Anyone know anything about this?

PLEASE do not do this to your birds. The typical Goat feed contains just 14-16% protein, which is (at 16%) the bare minimum in crude protein for your girls. Fiber levels tend to be roughly 2x-3x higher than your girls need (typically 10%+ where a chicken's target is 3.5%). The desired amino acid levels within that crude protein seek a different balance, and some of the trace mineral and vitamin targets differ as well. If there were nothing else available, for a few days, and you didn't want to mix a ration from your pantry for a few days, that might be tolerable.

HOWEVER. Goat feed is goat feed precisely baecause it contains about 5x more copper than any other livestock feed - dangerous levels of copper for everything other than goats. Not sheep, not cows, not horse, not rabbits, and certainly not chickens.

The excess fiber isn't good for your birds, but its not as dangerous as the copper. However, adding oats to the mix will only drive the total crude protein down further, making the nutritional value even less. It will additionally add yet more fiber, and oats are high in an anti-ntritional factor called a beta-glucan. Beta-glucans slow digestion, they are helpful for humans on moder diets (to a point), but in sufficient quantity (10% of total mix or more) they make a mucilage like substance in the gut which actually blocks the absorption of a number of nutritional components, causing your birds to get even less benefit from what was suggested that you feed them.

No, the sunflower seeds won't fix that. BOSS is only about 14% protein, LOTS of fat (also not good), and again, high fiber. The striped sunflower seeds that we eat are a little better, closer to 16% protein, still high fiber, and still very high fat.

The recipe suggested to you won't fix any nutritional problems in your chicken feed, and will likely make things worse.

and further??? Looks at a few mass recalls. Funny thing about animal feed. Its very common for a mill to make one grain mix, and use it in a host of feeds where it make up 80, 90% of the content of the bag. That last 10-20%? That's the stuff they add (vitamin and mineral premix, more copper (for goats), more fiber (for rabbits), more niacin (for ducks), more calcium (laying hens), etc) before they slap a name on the bag. In other words, swapping Dumor 16% layer feed for the 16% goat feed may be changing bags but using the same grains, milled at the same factory, under the same conditions. Even changing the Brand name won't necessarily help.

If, for whatever reason, you are convinced there is a problem with what you are feeding your birds (and not laying is not necessarily a problem, certainly not a problem from deficient nutrition unless there are other signs of nutritional deficits), the best thing you can do for your birds is to stop offering them a minimally nutritious feed intended for cost savings, made worse by the addition of lower nutritional quality ingredents like oats or corn, and feed them a FRESH bag of a nutritionally complete 18-20% crude protein "All FLock/Flock Raiser/Grower/Starter"-type feed formulation, with 1% calcium +/-, about 3.5% fat +/-, and look for the highest methionine and lysine levels you can find - at least 0.4% and 0.8%. Offer plenty of fresh clean water, free choice oyster shells on the side. Don't mess things up by adding anything to it - like corn, or oats or yes, even sunflower seeds - you don't have the knowledge base to know when you are likely doing harm in your well meaning efforts to do good.

Expect they may not go for it at first, chickens hate change. You can try wetting it down to an oatmeal-like consistency. Most birds go wild for that. Feed a bag, make sure your girls get plenty of sunshine. Spring is coming, it will get better.

 

[nuthatched]

Whoever told you they're doing this are slowly killing their chickens.
You don't want to do that, please take the advice of the above posters.
There's nothing wrong with chicken feed.
don't listen to the current unfounded hysteria.

 

[Aunt Angus]

And goat feed isn't even that great for goats, actually. My 130lb does get a handful daily at most, and that's with added probiotics. Many goat folks I know forego it entirely and stick with forage. It's so high in carbs that too much at once can cause bloat, which kills goats in horrible, painful fashion.

 

[Sussex19]

I would 100% listen to U_Stormcrow.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I would 100% listen to U_Stormcrow.

Yeah. Homey has done his homework.