grit anybody?

[Bring]

Do my chickens need grit? Will oyster shell do the same job as grit? My girls are 15 wks and 20 wks, no eggs yet. do they need oyster shell yet??

 

[gritsar]

Grit and oyster shell do not serve the same function. Grit helps birds digest their food. Oyster shell is a calcium supplement for laying hens.
I don't offer grit because my chickens find plenty of their own while foraging. I do offer oyster shell to my laying hens.
You can wait to start the OS until your girls are laying.

 

[RedStarDaddy]

It depends. No. Not yet.

They don't need grit if the only thing they eat is poultry feed, whether crumbles or pellets. If they free-range, get vegetable parings or table scraps, or get scratch, then they may need grit depending on what the ground conditions are like where you are. I chose to hang a 3-pound feeder half full of grit in my chicken house. It may not have been strictly necessary where I am, but I don't have to worry about it now.

Oyster shell will disintegrate and dissolve in the gizzard, especially if you are giving your chickens grit. Grit won't. As soon as my semi-local feed store gets more of those 3-pound feeders in, I'll be hanging another one that's about half full of oyster shell. I anticipate the oyster shell will wind up replenished three or four times for every once the grit is refilled.

The chicken uses calcium to create the eggshell. Layer feed contains enough calcium to replace the calcium the average chicken uses to make an egg. Until the chickens start laying, they don't really need the extra calcium. I would wait until your birds started laying before I put oyster shell in the coop.

RSD

 

[Country4ever]

Are you sure about that RedStartDaddy? I was always under the assumption they needed grit if eating pellets.

 

[Chicken Fruit]

if they are outside in the world they dont need grit supplied, and they dont need oyster shell if theyre on an egglaying supplemented feed.

If those conditions dont fit you'll have to provide those things for them.

 

[gritsar]

My layer feed has calcium in it, but the % is low. The shells are okay, not super hard. I prefer the hardness I get by offering oyster shell free choice.

 

[Country4ever]

Chicken Fruit........would the back of the feed bag say "grit" as listed as an ingredient?

 

[warmwater]

Hello, my girls are confined in their run until I get home from work...(that way I can watch over them). I buy a bag of grit from TSC and I throw some in their run every so often...this way if they need it -it's there.

 

[RedStarDaddy]

My girls have been in chicken jail for the past two weeks until today because I wanted them to figure out that the nest box is a better place for them to lay than the machine shed is. I have a three-pound plastic Little Giant feeder for grit that was half full when I closed the birds up. It was empty this morning. I have been giving them scratch, even while they were in lockdown, which may explain why the grit feeder was empty.

Where I live the soil is mainly sand and silt. My driveway is limestone, which also dissolves in the birds' gizzards. I feel better having insoluble grit for them.

As far as them not needing grit if they are eating pellets, I don't remember where I read that. The research into parrots says they don't need grit if they eat pellets but they do if they eat seed. I don't think I syncretized the two orders but I may have. The feed I use does say to give them grit free-choice or mix it in with the feed.

RSD

 

[kathyinmo]

Yes, they do need grit. Just supply a small cat food dish (2 sided) from the dollar store, with granite grit in one side and oyster shells (at laying age) in the other. Leave it free choice for them. They will eat it if they need it.