Homemade chick starter food?

[MN Chicken]

I am wondering if anyone has a good recipe for a homemade chick starter that is wheat/gluten free (no rye, barley, or wheat). 3 out of 4 of my family have celiac, and we are also allergic to wheat topically (skin allergies). Every single commercial feed I have found has one or more of these ingredients, and we cannot risk exposure to wheat/gluten at all, even by touch. It's not a matter of washing hands, gluten sticks...to everything it touches, which means it can contaminate our home from tracking in, dust, etc. Does anyone have a good recipe I can use to make my own chick starter? I have eggs due to hatch in about a week. Thank you!

 

[Eliza1313]

This is a good question. I would like to eventually go fully sustainable and grow all the food we need for our chickens. In my case we do not need to be gluten free. Suggest looking up nutrient content needed for a complete feed and how to calculate protein percentages in feed. Then check on the content of certain non-gluten grains/flours (soy, sorghum, amaranth, corn, etc.). You may need to get a flour mill too.

I am still new so someone else may have a better idea. A temporary feed could be cooked eggs (yolks from hard cooked or scrambled).

 

[Eliza1313]

Saw this thread tonight, if people respond to it, you may get some more ideas for feed.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/966738/wanted-your-valued-opinion-re-dried-egg-mix#post_15059128

Recipe links:

http://curtissannmatlock.com/2012/03/10/the-chicks-and-me-gluten-free/
http://curtissannmatlock.com/category/gluten-free-chicken-feed-2/

Some information links

http://smallfarm.about.com/od/chickens/a/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Chicken-Or-Poultry-Feed.htm
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/04/mix-your-own-chicken-feed-some.html
http://home.howstuffworks.com/green-living/organic-chicken-feed-cheap.htm

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Go have a look around the feeding and watering section of the forum (if you haven't already). There are quite a few homemade feed threads there

 

[MN Chicken]

Thank you all so much! These give me great starting points. I have a blender that turns things into powder, so I will check out all of the resources to make sure they have high enough protein. I'm assuming I should start grit pretty much right away? I haven't had chicks for 5 years!

 

[Eliza1313]

If you are grinding everything into a powder or fine consistency I do not believe you would need to provide grit right away. I am feeding an organic feed with some bits of grain in it that are not milled as fine so I have been putting a smidge of chick grit in with the feed about every other day. Main concern is making sure they do not gorge themselves on the grit over the regular feed.

Another tip I found on the forum is to make sure they have all started drinking before putting the food in the brooder. That is suppose to help prevent pasty butt.

 

[MN Chicken]

If you are grinding everything into a powder or fine consistency I do not believe you would need to provide grit right away. I am feeding an organic feed with some bits of grain in it that are not milled as fine so I have been putting a smidge of chick grit in with the feed about every other day. Main concern is making sure they do not gorge themselves on the grit over the regular feed.

Another tip I found on the forum is to make sure they have all started drinking before putting the food in the brooder. That is suppose to help prevent pasty butt.

Thank you so much! I will have to add a bit of grit too, and like this approach. The split peas won't mill down as flour like the rest of the ingredients. My recipe is:

Split peas
Grits
Quinoa
Flax
Gluten Free oats

In addition to this mix, I plan on feeding scrambled egg yolks until I can find an organic fish meal or egg powder source for protein.

 

[pingu1]

im not sure about the allergy but if you mash up a boiled egg the chicks like that but im not sure if that's enough to keep them alive

 

[MN Chicken]

im not sure about the allergy but if you mash up a boiled egg the chicks like that but im not sure if that's enough to keep them alive

I am not feeding them just the eggs, the eggs are in addition to the mix I listed.

 

[Eliza1313]

Glad I could help. I learned a lot with the little bit of information research I did. Including that research has proven that some soy proteins pass into the eggs, so that it could be possible for gluten proteins to do the same but there has not been a study done yet. I already am feeding a non-soy feed brand to both my hens and chicks. I try to avoid soy products, but it can be difficult. So I am planning to do more research into the cost of going gluten free for the chickens so I can be a local source for gluten free eggs without price gouging.