Medicated start and grow after they're laying?

[Lola12]

Hey all! At least one of my 15 week old girls started laying on Thursday. I still have at least 1/2 a bag of Sunfresh medicated start and grow that I thoght I would have time to finish (says to feed it to 20 weeks) before I switched to layer feed. Is it okay to mix it with the layer feed to use it up, or should I stop it completely? The medicated issue is what I was concerned about with the eggs. Thanks!

 

[justbugged]

I would have issues with the antibiotics in the eggs. I rarely feed my chicks more that one bag of medicated feed. It is usually enough for the first 2 weeks. Unless the birds are sick why give them antibiotics? It won't kill you if you need to mix it. But it has the small potential to increase the likely hood of getting a antibiotic resistant bug for either yourself and your birds. If you are healthy I wouldn't stress about it to much. The layer feed just has more calcium in it. You can always feed them anything that you would eat. I feed my girls all of the table scraps and any left over vegetables I might have. Lots of others feed their birds anything they can get their hands on that looks like food.

Check the boards, there are list of what is safe and what's not.

 

[Lola12]

Thanks, yes, I think I would feel more comfortable just buying new feed, even if I am cheap, LOL!

 

[Akane]

Most medicated feeds do not have antibiotics. They contain amprolium which is a thiamine blocker not an antibiotic. It also has a very short withdrawal period and is unlikely to cause any harm if you did ingest some. I also have yet to talk to anyone who can say for certain that it does or does not get in to the eggs. I wouldn't really worry about it. I've eaten eggs from chickens on medicated chick starter. I couldn't get gamebird feed which is what I normally feed so both chicks and hens can eat it. For one bag worth, a couple weeks, they all ate medicated starter instead. If you don't use layer feed you just have to make sure there is oyster shell available. I wouldn't continue to feed starter because they could end up with a vitamin deficiency but I wouldn't worry about finishing the bag if it were me. I wouldn't sell or give away those eggs though because of the odd chance of someone having a problem with them.

Of course this might not hold true if your bag of starter contains something other than amprolium.

 

[Lola12]

Thanks so much for your reply!