is grower necessary?

[Saerasx]

Ill be getting chicks in a week and will be using the Scratch n Peck feeds and starting with the Starter. I saw that they offer Grower and Layer feeds. Is the Grower necessary? They say start at 8 weeks but never say when to stop or start the Layer. So I'm wondering what is the best path to take?

 

[chicmom]

First you start with a bag of chick starter, then you switch to the chick grower until they're about 17 weeks old (that's very close to laying age), and then you switch to the layer feed.

Some brands of chick food say "starter/grower" on them, which is also fine until week 17.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If your using a medicated starter then you can switch to grower when it runs out or use non medicated starter after first bag (8 weeks is what's recommended for medicated so when first bag runs out is good). Starter usually has more protein than grower so would cost about a dollar more for 50 lbs.

Layer feed has the extra calcium that the birds need for good strong shells. You can feed starter or grower all the way until they start laying. Basically if you run out of what your feeding and they are 5 months old you can start up on layer feed. It comes in pellet form and you'll find there is less waste with that.


BTW, scratch is a treat, toss a handful now and then but don't use it as feed as it only has about 1/2 the protein they need.

And not many birds start laying before 20 weeks of age. In four years almost all my birds started around 24 weeks.

 

[Saerasx]

Thanks for the info! It's not scratch but the brand is called Scratch n Peck (it's almost local, comes from Washington) and is an all organic corn and soy free line of feeds so it won't be medicated either. Good to know the difference between them all! :yiipchick