medicated Chick feed for adults?

[rnorris1234]

Hey everyone, I have a question. is it safe for adults to eat medficated chick starter feed? I ask for a couple of reasons.
1. I have some 7 week old chicks that were raised with a broody hen, they are together with the mama hen and the other hens. I have been feeding all of them the medicated starter feed. Is this safe for the adult birds? Does this provide adiquate nutrition for the adults? They also free range during the day and the get a couple of handfuls of BOSS each morning.
2. The second reason i ask -- I just went to the TSC and they have a bunch of the starter feed marked 50% off. I bought a bag, but wondered if it were OK to feed to my other group of adults and laying hens? If so, I will go and get several more bags.

Thanks so much for your help and advice.

Robert

 

[shesaredroan]

I don't feed medicated feed after my girls start laying. I don't want the medication going into the eggs I eat. I feed something call 'chick-grow-lay' it's 22% protein and non-medicated.....good for all ages, since I have all ages penned together.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I also wouldn't want to eat the medicated food in the eggs. You can put oyster shell on the side and feed starter/grower feed to them.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

ahhhh don't give medicated food to the girls if you are planning on eating their eggs...you can use "flock raiser" for all ages if you want...

 

[rnorris1234]

I do feed flock raiser (and oyster shell) to my adult birds and layers. It's just the mama hen (and young pullets that aren't quite laying yet) in with the babies. I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't hurt the mama to eat the medicated feed for the chicks.
Also Tractor Supply has a pallet of chick starter on sale for $7.50 for a 50lb bag! I thought I would grab up some and feed to my adults if it was OK for egg layers, which apparently it is not, so I will not buy in bulk.
Thank you all for your insight.

Robert

 

[silkiechicken]

What is the medication?

If it is ONLY amprolium, which most feeds are now, let them eat away. It is a thiamine blocker that inhibits the reproductive cycle of cocci. It is in a low enough dose that even if you ate that medicated feed for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you won't go thiamine deficient or anything. Your life cycle is more than 24 hours and your have much more DNA checking machinery than does a protozoa, so you'll be fine. To show how low of a dose the amprolium is, chicks often get coccidosis even if all they eat is the medicated feed.

However, if the drug in the medicated feed is something else, just make sure you are not allergic to the drug (like sulfa drugs) and the amount that would go into an egg is so low it isn't going to be significant in the scheme of things, even if eggs are the only thing you eat.

 

[Miss Lydia]

When My mamma hens were with their chicks they all ate the medicated feed, and are fine just don't feed to the egg layers.