Ladies not happy about pellets....

[kla37]

I am trying to switch to pellets from crumbles to reduce waste of feed, and my girls are SO not happy about it. They are ticked, actually. Whenever they see me they start reading me the riot act and it is so pathetic! Will they starve? Will they eventually eat it? I tried this once before a few months ago, and I caved and went and bought crumbles.

Any advice? I'm really trying not to be a schmuck this time. My dog eats her dog food and that's it, my kids eat whatever they're given with no arguments, so why am I such a wimp about my chickens???

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
No. Yes.

Try putting some in a pan and wetting it. You can even sprinkle things they especially like over the top. The pellets will absorb the water & the whole thing becomes like oatmeal. Then you could gradually serve this with less & less water until they get more used to eating the larger dry bits.

 

[itsmyobsession]

I am trying to switch as well for the same reason and mine were not happy either, so, for right now I am mixing the two together and they are getting half crumbles and half pellets. Next I will add more pellets than crumbles to the mixture and so on until I ween them off of crumbles. Kinda like trying to get a baby off formula and onto real milk lol.

 

[kla37]

I like the weaning idea. I did try the wetting them down idea, but they never seemed to figure out that the wet yummy stuff was their pellets. I think it's mostly a matter of me not being so easy for them to train.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:

Yeah, I bet they're online now at their own BackYard Humans site, asking for advice on how to get their owner to feed them what they really want.

 

[kla37]

For sure. Should I with hold treats until they start eating their pellets?

 

[chicmom]

They will take to it when they get hungry. And I think when I switched to pellets, there was ALOT less waste, which made it seem like they weren't eating as much....

The pellets last much longer. I think it's because they don't need to eat as much, and also they can't throw it around as easily......

 

[b.hromada]

I'm like you, I tried the pellets also, and they were not so thrilled with that idea! So, I gave up. I'd really like to use the pellets, as there really is much less waste too.

 

[kla37]

I guess I just have to stay strong. So hard to do with little fluffy cuties looking at me like I am the worst animal owner in the world. And McGonagall showed me her butt this morning, just like a mad cat!

 

[RedReiner]

b.hromada :

I'm like you, I tried the pellets also, and they were not so thrilled with that idea! So, I gave up. I'd really like to use the pellets, as there really is much less waste too.

I started mine with pellets also, less waste, easier to deal with. Mine would not eat them. they all eventually lost weight so I switched to the crumbles. they at least eat that but if they have a choice they would prefer free range and treats lol.​