Grower pellet vs. crumble

[jmp568]

Hi All,
I am a total newbie to chickens but have been very educated thru this site !! I tried my girls 5 Barred Rocks , 8 weeks old on grower pellets and it didn't seem like they were eating. Went back to crumbles and they made me feel like I was starving them to death for thre days. Are they just too young to be able to eat pellets ? Or are the crumbles just better and eaiser for them ? These girls have a great daytime pasture that they enjoy, tons of grass and all the yummys that go with it. I do give them some spinach and brocilli from my garden as incentive to come in at night. Works like a charm they are totally trained to lockdown for the night. I am in love with these girls and we have way to many potential preds here. Lockdown for night. They have a huge coop, 7' by 8' by 8' high for 5 of them so don't feel bad for them. Every morning tons of pellets left. I hung there feeder 2 weeks ago because it seemed like they were wasting alot or filling it up with shavings and poop. That really helped. But pellets weren't going down, same level in feeder for three days. I don't fill feeder up , I was just giving them enough that they always had abit left over in am. Well never had to refill. Went back to crumbles and they devored it like they hadn't eaten for days. Are pellets too big for them at this age ?
Thanks,
Maura In love with my Barred Rocks !!!

 

[tadandrita]

We recently tried pellets and did not have good results either. We give a mix of scratch grains and layer crumbles normally. We added pellets to test it and they ate around them. I have Ameraucanas, Orpingtons, various Bantams, and Jumbo Pekin Ducks, nobody liked it. BTW i have heard crumbles takes longer for them to eat enough to be full. So when they eat pellets they fill up quicker but have more free time to get bored and do bad things like pluck feathers..just what I heard?¿

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

I switch mine to pellets at 7 wks. It only looks like they eat less because there is less waste with pellets. The crumbles have a lot of powder and are easier to flick out with their beaks. They get used to them.