Is it normal for chick starter to be this powdery?

[AgnesGray]

In organic I've had everything from pellets to crumbles to fine powder that was meant to be made as a mash. The fine powdery stuff has been a pain the rear as a bunch of it gets wasted in our coops if it's dry. For chicks it can be mixed up with some room temp or slightly tepid water and that has gone better for us. The one you have seems to be a hybrid between a mash and crumbles and I don't think I'd know what to do with that.

As for them liking non-organic vs organic.... being organic doesn't change the flavor. Like organic apples vs non-organic apples. Could be they like the mix of ingredients better in the other anyway. I know if my chickens have a choice, they will peck holes in the treat bags and eat them until they're sick rather than eating the good-for-them food.

 

[AngBantamLuv]

At the local store i got my chicks from, they recommended the mash for the first two weeks, then the starter crumbles after that.. mine loved it, but they were 3 day old hatchlings.. if they are older than a couple weeks old though, id think it would be too fine. Seems like 50 lbs would last way too long.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I really have a hard time believing that they haven't had consumption issues. Maybe if their chickens stay locked in a coop and are starving so they have no other option.

As ronott1 noted, chickens don't often like new things so that may be part of it.

Also sometimes, it just seems that there's just some feeds that the chickens don't like and won't ever like, no matter how much you try. I tried to switch my hens to pellets that I knew were good quality, but gave up after the 3rd bag... they never took to it and just threw a ton of it all over the ground, even though it was the only feed available top them the majority of the day. As soon as I swapped back to their previous pellets, they stopped wasting it and ate without issue.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hello,
The last time I bought chick starter, I bought a bag of DuMor non-organic from the breeder. This time I wanted to do something good for the chickens, so I went to the organic feed store and spent more than twice as much on local feed. When I opened the bag, it was about 80% powder. The entire 50lb bag looks like the powder that was left in the very bottom of the DuMor bag. I've attached a pic of it. The stuff in the bucket is the local feed, and the stuff in my hand is the DuMor feed.

I tried feeding and handful to them and when they initially tried eating it, it was so powdery that they started sneezing. After that they wouldn't go near it. I tried contacting the feed company and they would not respond online. After multiple attempts, they responded telling me to call them. I feel like they might just be trying to get me to call so they can BS me into thinking this is acceptable.

Am I off base here? Is this how organic feed normally looks?

View attachment 2176932

That’s what my chick starter would look like when I used to have chicks. Have you tried mixing the powder with some water? That’s what I always did with the powdery stuff at the bottom so I wouldn’t waste it and my chicks would love it!

 

[Justso]

That’s what my chick starter would look like when I used to have chicks. Have you tried mixing the powder with some water? That’s what I always did with the powdery stuff at the bottom so I wouldn’t waste it and my chicks would love it!

Yes, mine think the mash (powder+water) is the best thing I've ever fed them in the whole world.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Yes, mine think the mash (powder+water) is the best thing I've ever fed them in the whole world.

Yep, my chickens love when I make their feed into mash too!

 

[feliciadawn]

My starter looks like that. I ferment it now, or sprinkle it over veggies with yogurt.

 

[PDXJULES]

That's what mine looks like. Unfortunately, organic chick feed seems more powdery than most other feeds.

Left: Eggland's best Layer Crumbles, R: Purina Organic Layer Crumbles. My Pullets are not happy !

 

[2000096904]

I had a chick that would not eat I would recommend picking up the chicks and putting some of the wet food ( Wich should have a paste like texture) on the tip of their beaks

 

[2000096904]

They most likely will then gobble it up and after a while they will eat the wet food on their own