I accidentally bought adult chicken feed instead of chick feed.

[chickenalice]

I have 5, 13 week old chickens. On the back of the purina food bag, it says we should feed them start and grow until they are 17 weeks. I accidentally bought Layena which is for egg laying hens. does it matter if i feed them that? should i go back and buy the start and grow?

 

[johny]

I've heard young birds can get kidney stones from the high calcium content of layer rations.
So save it for later and get some age appropriate feed.
I don't think a few days of layer feed will hurt, if you can't get to the feed store right away.

 

[Akane]

It depends how early your chickens start laying. Some breeds that start up at 16weeks would probably be fine with layer at 13weeks. Breeds that don't lay until 32weeks would be highly likely to show health problems later from the excess calcium and low protein. Most people don't start layer until at least 16weeks since pretty much no chickens start laying before then and many don't start it until another month or 2 after that to avoid the potential health problems and make sure the chickens are done growing/molting so they don't require as much protein.

 

[catdaddy66]

Go ahead and get another bag of chick feed and use it for the young birds. The layer feed will last until the girls are old enough to switch to layer, but make sure to keep it in an sealed container. You're fine, we all have made the same mistake or close to it!! You do have to be careful of the higher levels of calcium for younger chickens but if you keep plenty of water on hand you should see no problems. Hope that helps. Good luck!!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I'd buy one more bag of grower, use it up, then switch to Layena, if it were me.

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:

Yep! As long as you put it in a sealed container or store it inside it will be fine until they're ready for it. If you're out and need to feed it for a day or two until you can get back to the feedstore that will be fine too, but they'll be better off staying on the grower for awhile longer.

 

[chickenalice]

Thanks everyone!