How do you get your chickens to start eating a new kind of food?

[Phantom_k9]

We have been feeding our chickens a special feed that has anti-biotics in it, and is meant for baby chicks to young adult chickens. The new food is in the form of pellets. Thing is, as far as we know our chickens refuse to touch the stuff. While they are free ranged, we fear they may not be able to get enough nutrient out and about. Any tips?

 

[Wezdin]

As long as the feed is fresh they should eat it when they get hungry, how long has the food been out?

 

[Phantom_k9]

As long as the feed is fresh they should eat it when they get hungry, how long has the food been out?

we tend to replace their food every three days, sometimes sooner

 

[Wezdin]

we tend to replace their food every three days, sometimes sooner

Sorry, i meant how long the new food has been available to them.

 

[Phantom_k9]

Sorry, i meant how long the new food has been available to them.

oh available? We've been mixing it in with their old stuff for the last two months. We just recently (as of the beginning of this month) had them go "cold turkey" to the other stuff.

 

[Wezdin]

My inclination is that they will eat it when they get hungry, if you are worried you could crush up the pellets and see if they eat that.

 

[PirateGirl]

I just give them the new food. I don't mix with the old food, I don't transition. When they are hungry, they will eat it. Whenever I run out of food there's a chance of them getting something new depending what store I go to. Since your birds free range they are probably finding enough to eat elsewhere.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I just give them the new food. I don't mix with the old food, I don't transition. When they are hungry, they will eat it.

I don't transition either, as I find they'll pick out the new food to get to the food they're already used to. If the new food is the only food, they'll eventually eat it.

To make it more appetizing you can try crushing some of it into smaller pieces, since they're not used to pellets, or serving it wet in a thick oatmeal consistency, which a lot of chickens seem to like.

 

[Jnewt419]

Mine eat whatever feed I give them. The few times I tried pellets, they were slow to accept it, but they do. Ive also never seen a reason to transition feeds. If I try something new, I give it to them when I run out of the bag im feeding from. That being said, there is one "ingredient" that I have had chickens refuse to eat and that was whole soybeans. I do believe they would starve before they ate one. Im sure that's not the case here though. But for the most part you can kinda of think of chickens as spoiled and usually they just dont like change. But they will normally come around. Of course this is only my opinion. One example I have is several weeks ago I tried Nutrena Layer pellets. I sprinkled some on the ground and they were fighting over it. But once I filled the feeders with it, they looked at me like I was crazy and would not eat it for a couple days