Do you guys use medicated chick starter? We've always used it, but I see quite a few people buying non-medicated chick starter as well, so I was just curious. Our feed store only offers the medicated feed in 5lb bags, which is annoying.
I always fed medicated but I don't know that I will continue. The amount of Amprolium in medicated feed is very low and chicks can and sometimes do still come down with coccidiosis. I've had it happen myself. It also doesn't do any good to feed medicated unless chicks are exposed to soil at the same time so they can build their immunity. I'm undecided but in the future I may just feed non-medicated, slowly expose chicks to soil and just keep an eye out for signs of coccidiosis and treat if needed.
I used medicated feed for my very first round of chicks but after reading about Amprolium I decided to pass on using it again and now use a non-medicated feed. I feed a 20% protein organic starter to all of my birds at all life stages.
I decided non-medicated. I feel as though if I keep everything clean their risk is minimal. I just sit and think people did this without the medicated stuff FOREVER, my chicky's don't need that and can build up their immunities naturally. Maybe it's b/c i'm a noob at this but I'm going as naturally as possible with my babies and I'll let nature do her thing. Obviously this is a personal choice as I can see the merit in medicated feed but it's just not for me.
I didn't/don't. I use flock raiser actually, so i can use it for all my birds, chickens and ducks from a few days old right on up through years old. I just cannot see the point in buying multiple bags of different feeds, i just add oyster shell(free choice) when laying starts.
On the "home" page of this forum is a really interesting article on feeding medicated feed versus non medicated. I'm a nooby and am feeding my 10 chicks medicated.
