I SCREWED UP AND FED THE WRONG FOOD!!!

[hooziz2005]

we screwed up . we have 12 chicks that were purchased and came in sets of 4 ,,,,,,3 weeks apart. ( not our choice) however we fed the chicks about 30 lbs of some organic starter food crumbles and then switched by mistake to a layer crumble ( we picked up the wrong bag and fed them about 30 of the 40 lbs before we realized the screw up.) 4 of our chicks are 7 weeks old, 4 are 6 weeks old and 4 are 5 weeks old.

chicks 1-4 had some of the 5 LB medicated feed starter , then ate some correct starter crumbles , 3-5 weeks of life and then weeks 5-7 and then to the mistake bag of layer crumbles
chicks 4-8 had a little of medicated and then were switched to starter crumbles for about 3-4 weeks of their life and then to the mistake bag of layer crumbles week 6 and 7
chicks 8-12 had prob 1-2 weeks of the correct food and then started with the wrong layer crumbles and for the past 3-5 weeks have been eating the wrong food


how much damage did we cause to our chicks by this screw up.? this explains a lot as our newest chicks are all runts compared to the other 8 who at least had a few weeks on the correct food. We are switching them all over to starter grower until they begin laying now. any help would be great

 

[Rooster Runner]

This mistake isn't a problem. I did it once too, all the birds were fine. The only major difference between the two is: Starter has more protein so the birds grow faster, and the layer has less. Not a big deal!

 

[Chicken Chiquita]

Hopefully once you strat feeding them the correct food again, they will be fine. Found this article here on byc though, https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar... liver failure can,, risk overdose, and death.
You will want to go to this part:
The Effects Of Feeding Layer Pellets To Birds Younger Then Laying Age
I wound't worry much though, i'm sure they will be fine!! Everyone makes mistakes sometimes!! Good luck!!

 

[keesmom]

What's done is done. Highly likely they will be fine.

There are some of us that prefer to use a flock raiser feed instead of the usual starter/grower/layer. It can be used for chickens of all ages, genders, and stages of molt. Just include a side of oyster shell for layers. Something to consider for next time.