medicated/non medicated chick starter??

[havi]

My chicks are now 8 and 9 days old. I first bought non-medicated chick starter feed and now want to switch over to the medicated kind. But I still have the non-med left. What should I do? Should I mix it half and half? Or just throw the non-med away and start feeding them all medicated. I only have 6 chicks, so they dont go through feed too fast.

 

[eggchicken master]

I dont recomend you feed medicated feed ive had bad experinces(motality) so i wouldent feed med feed.

 

[professor-yellow]

I feed non-med myself, but others swear by it for at least the first two weeks. My point is instead of throwing it away, give it away to someone whe could use it. Craigslist?

Personally I wouldnt even put in the compost.

 

[airmom1c05]

Wow, y'all! The elderly lady who has owned the feed store for many years here told me that in Mississippi you aren't allowed to sell chick starter/grower without the medication! Have you ever heard of that sort of law before? I haven't had newly hatched chicks yet (may have 1 to 3 under my broody by daylight), but my youngest (probably 6 to 8 wk. old when I got her) is still eating the medicated starter/grower and doing just fine. Recently, because I keep reading roosters don't need much calcium and because I have integrated the youngest chick in with the older layers and the rooster, I have begun feeding the medicated starter/grower to ALL my flock and just keeping oyster shell available free choice 24/7 for my layers. Everyone seems to be just fine! I don't even know if I can get non-medicated in Mississippi unless I order online! I definitely can't get it in time for the chicks that may or may not hatch by morning!

 

[twigg]

Quote:
Do we have any Organic chicken farmers in Mississippi who could tell us how they deal with this?

 

[speedabug]

I have been raising chickens for about 10 years and i only feed them medicated feed. They grow healthy in my opinion. They are feed that untill the can live in the chicken pen and eat adult food. I have never had a chick die when feeding them medicated feed.

 

[cluckychick]

Got alittle uneasy there reading the first couple of post. I feed medicated feed (first time chicken owner). When I bought mine at TS they said feed this and I said ok. They are doing great and growing like weeds. I was told to feed it to about 18 weeks or so and then on to other stuff.

 

[twigg]

Quote:
Yeah .... I can see why.

If you don't KNOW your chicks died from medicated feed, then probably best not to use that as a reason to advise against it. And if they did, it was prolly a bad batch.

Just so everyone is clear ...... Billions of chicks have grown, and continue to grow perfectly well on medicated feed.

The discussion isn't about whether or not it is safe, but about it's necessity for small flock owners.

*take what you need, and leave the rest*

 

[tnkinhunting]

My feed store manager recommends regular chick starter until you put them on the ground and then feed them the medicated feed. That is when/where they pick up the cocci -this year I have been feeding them pheasant starter grower that is medicated without any problems. They didn't have regular medicated starter grower.

Last fall I fed just starter and when I put them on the ground, they got cocci and I had to treat them - I didn't lose any but some were stunted. My personal belief is put them on medicated feed at the beginning and keep them on it for a couple of months maybe more.

 

[havi]

I would really LOVE to give them organic feed, but no one around here sells it. I dont even want to know how much shipping would be on 50lb bags. And its WAAAAAAy to expensive for me to make it myself.

I think I will give the nonmedicated away to someone. Would there be a problem if I mixed the two together? Like 50/50 ?