how to get chickens to gain weight

[hdowden]

have some buff orps about 5-6 months of age and they are really really skinny and some of the others in other pens are to. they have been wormed and that hasn't helped. they are feed laying pellets and have access to food and water 24/7. i have given them corn on the cob, scratch, yogurt, they get seed treats, and will be giving them pumpkins since its halloween time, they have also been feed watermelon and strawberries, just nothing seems to work. we want to sell them but we aren't going to sell skinny chickens.

is this normal for buff orps? i wouldn't think so but it's mostly just on the younger ones that don't seem like they are feeling out at all as they are growing.

any idea's? if you could just make it in a list like this please:

strawberry
watermelon
oats
corn
sratch

i find this much easier to read lol

 

[silkiechicken]

Skinny is relative. Compared to a leghorn, they should be a bit "fatter", compared to those commercial carcasses you get at the grocery store meat section, you'd think your birds were starving. It is normal to feel the keel and for them to have a V or slight U shape to their breast.

 

[hdowden]

they really feel like they have no meat on them at all though and i remember them being beefier when they were a bit younger but they are the only ones in the pen that they are in (there are Sumatra's in the same pen over a year old) that feel this way. i really wish i could describe it better than well skinny, if you pic them up they are fairly lighter than when they were younger that's why we wormed them and they aren't showing any signs of being sick at all.

 

[NovaAman]

If they are not laying yet, and even if they are, switch them back to grower for a while with oyster shell free choice on the side, not mixed in. I use flockraiser for my birds because I have multiple ages from layers to chicks. BUT you can use a grower finisher for awhile longer yet. If you've done worming recently, did you do a second treatment? If no, before you do, can you get a fecal sample done at a vet office first? Deworming, though sometimes is a necessary thing, if you don't need to, don't.

 

[NovaAman]

Also, how about other parasites? Mites or lice?

 

[hdowden]

we have dealt with those as well for several months for at least once a week the whole area, granted cant treat the wild birds that are flying in and out.

 

[silkiechicken]

If they are loosing weight, perhaps you can take a sample in to test to see if the may have a mild case of coccidiosis? Only the bad cases of one particular strain of cocci results in the standard bloody poo. Maybe this group is more susceptible for some reason.

 

[hdowden]

i think thats been treated for once before as well, thats why i am at such a loss (granted i can't remember every last thing thats been tried right off the top of my head). they act completly normal, eat and drink just fine

i just can't think of anything else to do for them. these came as packing peanuts from ideal and we lost 2 of them the day we got them and 1 other one the next day. some chicks had bloody poop so the whole flock was treated for coccis didn't loose any nor did they loose any weight at that time that was a month or 2 ago.

 

[hdowden]

If they are not laying yet, and even if they are, switch them back to grower for a while with oyster shell free choice on the side, not mixed in. I use flockraiser for my birds because I have multiple ages from layers to chicks. BUT you can use a grower finisher for awhile longer yet. If you've done worming recently, did you do a second treatment? If no, before you do, can you get a fecal sample done at a vet office first? Deworming, though sometimes is a necessary thing, if you don't need to, don't.

theres no vets around here that i have found yet that know a thing about birds in general :/ horses and other livestock like that yea but fowl no which i find a bit weird as a bunch of folks around here keep fowl

 

[SouthernChicka8]

Might help to feed them fermented feed? This is what helped plump up my girls. They have been gaining weight ever since I have done the fermented feed. Could give it a try.