In a pinch, can you feed 2 week old chicks grower/finisher food instead of chick starter?

Bocktobery 10

Songster
10 Years
Oct 8, 2010
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I'm in a pinch... have no non-medicated chick feed at the moment. I was wondering if I could feed a baby chick grower/finisher instead of the chick starter... just for a few hours? Will this hurt the chick?
 
That will be fine, basically the only difference between finisher and starter is the amount of protein in it. Just get them back on starter as soon as you can because they need the higher protein to grow.
 
the biggest worry with chicks and food is layer feed. Layer feed normally has suplemental calcium in it which is not good for non-laying birds as their bodies need to process the excess calcium.

If you need to use a lower protein feed for a time and want to keep the protein level up, you could try adding boiled egg or meat scraps to their feed. Just make sure they have access to grit if giving them things to eat besides chicken feed.

I've also heard of people giving cat food as a protein source.
 
I feed my entire flock Grower or All Flock and that's every one of them, from chicks to layers to roosters. I have a dish of oyster shell in there at all times. The layers take what they need out of it and after a few curious nibbles the chicks leave it alone. They know when they'll need it! I also hard boil older eggs, crush them, and then feed them to the chickens on occasion. With as many birds of varying ages as I have, there's no way to feed specialized food to them all, and they do very well this way. Besides, logistically speaking it would be a nightmare to try to keep the chicks from eating the layer food and vice versa. Good luck!
 

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