Help 19 month old laying eating shavings

[6BeachChicks]

Like I said they eat kalmbach feed crumbles & pellets I do give fruit and vegetables but as a treat not everyday or week mealworms as well just enough to call them ba k in from free ranging to secure them when I have to leave for work or elsewhere water they get rooster booster electrolytes with the vitamins in it coops cleaned daily wiped down and striped weekly run pens get cleaned daily after locked in coops at night I don’t let there feces stay in run pens I’m very clean and keep good bio security I bring fecal samples to vet at lest 5 times a yr and worm when or if the samples are positive and when they aren’t I still will do twice a yr just in case an egg wasn’t found in the sample

You take great care of your girls. Do the other hens keep her away from food?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm not sure how you would prevent her from eating the bedding and grass.

Do you provide poultry grit for your birds? (crushed granite)

 

[circlemfarmny]

You take great care of your girls. Do the other hens keep her away from food?

Thank you no they don’t keep her away from food and I have 2 feeders just in case of that also have grit/ oyster shell stations in runs

 

[6BeachChicks]

Thank you no they don’t keep her away from food and I have 2 feeders just in case of that also have grit/ oyster shell stations in runs

I’m not sure what to tell you.

 

[azygous]

As @Wyorp Rock mentioned, lack of suitable grit is often the problem when a chicken is overindulging on bedding. They have an instinct constantly to be picking up grit, and when there isn't any, they make do with what they do find easy to pick up. If you provide granite grit sprinkled all over the ground of the run, I think it may solve the problem.

Oyster shell is not grit, by the way. It's water soluble. You need non-water soluble grit.

 

[circlemfarmny]

I'm not sure how you would prevent her from eating the bedding and grass.

Do you provide poultry grit for your birds? (crushed granite)

I know that’s the problem I can’t figure it out how to keep her from eating bedding when she was raised on it and never ate it till recently that’s why I was thinking she had some sort of deficiency vet doesn’t have an answer but to keep her off of it and yes I have grit and oyster shell stations in runs for them

 

[circlemfarmny]

As @Wyorp Rock mentioned, lack of suitable grit is often the problem when a chicken is overindulging on bedding. They have an instinct constantly to be picking up grit, and when there isn't any, they make do with what they do find easy to pick up. If you provide granite grit sprinkled all over the ground of the run, I think it may solve the problem.

I have grit stations and oyster shell stations in runs for them when out free ranging well we live on a mt ridge there is plenty of lil grit rocks around

 

[circlemfarmny]

I have grit stations and oyster shell stations in runs for them when out free ranging well we live on a mt ridge there is plenty of lil grit rocks around

 

[circlemfarmny]

I have grit stations and oyster shell stations in runs for them when out free ranging well we live on a mt ridge there is plenty of lil grit rocks around

Unless you are suggesting that I pour bags of grit and oyster shells on their dirt in the runs if that would help but to find out she still will ext shavings and another crop surgery ugggh

 

[Eggcessive]

Crushed oyster shell is not the same as granite poultry grit. Do you have both? Okay, I see that you do. Some think those are the same thing. I once had a loner hen who had access to grit and good all flock and layer feed. She still would eat tree algae, dried grass, and other unsuitable things. Eventually she starved to death and when I opened her gizzard and crop, it was full of dried things. She was active, roosting, and seemed normal even going for treats up until she died. I think that some birds may need something in their diet, such as minerals that they cannot get, and they may develop a weird type of pica. Who knows, but this chicken doesn’t seem like she will survive too long.