Have questions on food for our 7 girls @ 4 weeks old

[Heidi65]

Our girls are 4 weeks old today, we have had them for 3 weeks. When we bought them they were being feed Purina Medicated Chick Starter Feed. The bag says to feed them that until they are 18 weeks old.

Our questions are;

Why medicated? We have been letting them out to play every single day and they LOVE it! We have also given them crickets, worms and what ever we dig up around the yard. We also give them the Probiotic water additive.

Why Purina? or is all of the Starter Feed this powdery? It seems we are throwing out so much of this stuff it is crazy!!! It is cheap, don't get me wrong but I hate wasting money and use personally, we are not all that crazy about the brand.

I bought a package of 5 horizontal water nipples and our girls can get water out of them to save their life!! Water will come out if we push in the pin but they all just try to move it and get water. These are the red ones. I've seen on the forum that some of you have talked about the purple ones, are they any easier to work? If not, could someone PLEASE give us ideas us ideas, we again, are constantly throwing out the water because it is nasty!

Thanks so much, I don't post much but that's because I'm so much!
One of my next posts will be about our babies over sized home, 60 sq ft coop and 120 sq ft attached pen

Heidi

 

[Odelia]

coccidiosis is why you feed them medicated feed. If you chicks were not vaccinated when they were day old chicks you need to feed them the medicated feed to protect them. It has a very high mortality rate so I do recommend keeping them on the medicated feed for now.

Here is a show about medicated feed. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to listen.

http://www.urbanchickenpodcast.com/ucp-episode-011/

Hope this helps.

 

[Judy]

Medicaated, if it is with amprolium, is to help them build immunity to cocci, found in all soils. Cocci can make young chicks very sick or even kill them. Chicks raised with a hen pick up immunity from the hen, by eating bits of her poop. Some people find they must give extra amprolium for several weeks til the chicks have developed their own immunity. See here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/879239/cocci-prevention#post_13364390

Brand is our choice. No feed should be too powdery. That may be more a function of the age of the feed than the brand. Take it back if it does not smell or look fresh.

Sorry, I know nothing about watering them that way.