Grit help! How serve it & is it needed with a sand run?

[BigBlueHen53]

No worries that they will eat too much grit. They instinctively know how much they need.

Later when they get near to laying age you will want to provide oyster shell in another separate bowl. Only the laying hens need it or will eat it. By providing it separately you can feed an all-flock formula and not have to worry that any non-layers (males, old or young birds or moulting ones) may be getting too much calcium, which is not good for them, as may be the case if you offer a layer formula feed. Sorry about the run-on sentence.

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

No worries that they will eat too much grit. They instinctively know how much they need.

Later when they get near to laying age you will want to provide oyster shell in another separate bowl. Only the laying hens need it or will eat it. By providing it separately you can feed an all-flock formula and not have to worry that any non-layers (males, old or young birds or moulting ones) may be getting too much calcium, which is not good for them, as may be the case if you offer a layer formula feed. Sorry about the run-on sentence.

Hello Free choice is always best. I think you are correct, they know what they need.

 

[RoyalChick]

Hello Free choice is always best. I think you are correct, they know what they need.

Agree. And mine are curiously picky about oyster shell and complain when I get the kind that isn’t really oyster shell. How did I raise brand loyal chickens for goodness sake?!

 

[SourRoses]

Sand is too fine to be any help. The crushed granite grit is better. They can have it free choice, there's no danger of them having too much, the gizzard will just pass excess along. The grit gets worn down and broken up during use and they eventually pass all of it.
They waste half or more of it, but you know they need it because they spend time picking through and go crazy for it if they're over a certain age and haven't had any, or if it's been a while.
In my area we can only seem to get the chick grit and the adult size. So I tip out the adult bag in a bucket except for the last inch or so that has more of the smaller pieces, and mix that with the chick size. Seems to suffice until they're big enough for the adult grit.

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

Sand is too fine to be any help. The crushed granite grit is better. They can have it free choice, there's no danger of them having too much, the gizzard will just pass excess along. The grit gets worn down and broken up during use and they eventually pass all of it.
They waste half or more of it, but you know they need it because they spend time picking through and go crazy for it if they're over a certain age and haven't had any, or if it's been a while.
In my area we can only seem to get the chick grit and the adult size. So I tip out the adult bag in a bucket except for the last inch or so that has more of the smaller pieces, and mix that with the chick size. Seems to suffice until they're big enough for the adult grit.

Hello This sand is bigger than proper beach sand. For small birds construction sand is big enough.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I start offering chick grit to my babies when they are three days old. They always go crazy for it, but I've never had one get sick from overdosing on it! About three days later I start offering mealworms - to teach them that the sound of my voice means good things happen so they learn to come to me!

 

[BDutch]

Where I live they don’t sell chick grit (small stones).
FYI: The name grit is used for crushed shells. Sometimes its a mix of small sharp stones and oyster shell. That they use the word grit for stones in the US can be very confusing for google translate and people in Europe.

Buying the smallest stone sizes means buying something that looks like coarse sand , labeled as stomach gravel for songbirds. The more suitable size is sometimes available as pigeon/dove gravel. Last time I could buy a bag labeled stomach gravel fine.
1kg costed € 1,95 (about 2$ for 2 pound).

My chicks eats lots of other stuff besides chick feed. Therefore I find it very important that they have acces to grit to digest food with fibers (fruits, grasses, herbs, etc.). When my chickens free range they have acces to a few pebble paths (small river stones) too. Most pebbles have no sharp edges but there are crushed ones too. Never had crop problems with my chickens.

 

[PimsGarden]

I think it's worth noting that really fine sand can cause impaction issues in their crop, not that you have fine sand but good info for the future. Apparently they can eat too much and cause a blockage that way, seems rare but it is possible. I've seen it on here a couple times.