is grit needed?

[aussieheelr]

I live in a desert area. My chickies scratch pen is all this rocky/pebble/sand stuff that they just go nuts pickin' at all day. So with this in mind do they need extra "grit" given to them? I would think no but thought I would ask the pannel.

 

[Judy]

Opinions on here vary. Grit, being granite, is said to be harder than other rocks, so it lasts longer and works better.

Our soil has a lot of sand and limestone, and this is farm country, and plenty of people have chickens around here. The feed stores don't sell grit and did not know what I was talking about, yet they have had chicks for sale for months, still do.

I do offer grit because sand is fine and limestone is soft. Some of them eat it and some ignore it.

Personally, though, in your environment, I would not. Whatever you are comfortable with.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You may already know most of this but I'll mention it anyway. Chickens don't have molars to grind up their food. Instead a part of their digestive track, the gizzard, grinds their food for them. The gizzard uses small pieces of stone to do the grinding. For baby chicks, this stone is the size of sand. For grown chickens, it can be up to the size of a pea, but they use smaller stones too.

Commercially sold grit is usually made mostly from crushed granite. I've tried to do some online research on how it is made and did not get very far. I think it is usually a by-product of other processes with the right size screened out to be used as grit, but I'm not sure this is always the case. Something else interesting is that most grit for adult chickens had a guaranteed level of calcium. They eat such a small amount of grit that I can't see why calcium in grit would be at all beneficial. Anyway, I digress.

Granite is often sold commercially to be used as grit because it is hard and will last a long time in the gizzard compared to many other easily available rocks. But grit does not have to be granite. Anything harder than the foods they are eating will work. The softer stones just get ground up faster and they have to find more to replace them. I'm pretty sure chickens don't have a degree in geology. I doubt they can tell the hardness of different rocks that well. I'm no expert so that is just my opinion, but a chicken will use what ever rocks are native to its area. It is not going to refuse all other rocks and wait on granite.

I also read that sharp angular materials are better than smooth stone or sand for grit, like builder's sand would be better than river sand as the river sand has been worn smooth. I'm not sure how important that really is since, if you look at the stones in a chicken's gizzard, they are worn very smooth and are still being used. I'd think any advantage to angular material would be temporary at best.

I'm sure this is a lot more detailed than you were after, but, if they have a rocky/pebbly/sandy area, you do not need to supply extra grit. They will get all they need.