Making Your Own Chick Feed?

[MinxFox]

I was emailed today while I was at school by someone who I figure is in or near India based on their name and their question. They were asking me this:
Quote:
I hesitated to reply because I was at school and I was not really sure off of the top of my head what is in peachick feed. They emailed me again wanting an answer so I decided to go ahead and explain to them that I just buy the feed and I told them all I know which is I use a medicated chick starter around 18% and it is crumbles.

This was their reply:
Quote:
So here I am reaching out to the community to answer this one because I have no idea what to tell them. I am wondering if they might have to consider having chick feed shipped to them since they do not have a local bird feed source.

 

[enola]

Suggest that he join the community so he can ask for help.

 

[MeepBeep]

I find it hard to believe that they can't source a basic chicken starter feed locally, assuming they devote the time to looking, as chickens and other poultry are raised pretty universally worldwide... Have him/her find someone that had chickens or inquire at a local market, someone is bound to raise poultry near them...

A turkey or other high energy game bird feed would be better though over a chicken feed...

Making a balanced feed from scratch is no small task, and if they can't source even basic chicken feed locally chances are they won't be able to source the stuff necessary to make a balanced feed either...

If they can't find a high protein poultry feed locally they could substitute a hog/pig feed (might be hard to find in some region of India due to religious beliefs) or regular chicken feed cut about 50/50 with dry cat food to boost protein and get a better balance of amino acids... This has it's own drawbacks, but will suffice in a bind if nothing else is available...

 

[Garden Peas]

@MinxFox , this person was looking for peachick feeding info, right? That would explain a lot... and there are countries, I think, where commercial animal feeds just aren't as available. Good grief, even the local feed store where I go isn't familiar with pea-specific requirements. Tractor Supply folks don't know either...

Sigh. There was quite the thread/discussion on here awhile back about formulating pea diets and sourcing ingredients. I'll look for it.

 

[Garden Peas]

Here's that the old discussion that I was remembering... that person was inquiring from Pakistan:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/868552/please-help-customized-feed

You could send this person that link, or better yet, as Enola suggested, have them join us so they can discuss it here. Anyway, there's lots of stuff in that old conversation about making feed from scratch and what ingredients to use and what substitutes for what...

 

[MinxFox]

Thank you Garden Peas! Hopefully they can find someone nearby who raises chickens that they can get advise from too.

 

[Peafowlssssssss]

I'm sure there many chicks feeds in India, many people there raise indian chickens which their chicks needs almost the same feed as peachicks.

 

[Pork Pie]

Heres a link that may be useful in terms of chicken feed

http://www.theorganicfarmer.org/Articles/poultry-keeping-what-farmers-need-succeed


The source is based in Africa, but maybe it will help a little.

CT

 

[Garden Peas]

@MinxFox were you ever able to find out what country the person was from, or any more info about where he or she lives?

 

[MinxFox]

Nope they haven't replied back to me but now I have someone emailing me from Pakistan wanting a green peafowl pair. I would like a green peafowl pair too haha. I only have one green.