Medicated starter chick food - how long?

[CalgaryFarmer]

Good post ridgerunner. Thanks.

 

[Cacique500]

I too appreciate all replies. My chicks ate the medicated starter food until they were 4 weeks old. My problem is I have two chicks that will only stay with their mama and when I feed the rest of the flock mama comes down to eat and the chicks follow. I try to give them the medicated starter, but the larger hens take over and eat it themselves! I have no place to separate them. I've had no luck raising chicks under a heat lamp. I was only successful letting nature take its course by leaving them with Mama.

Is it a problem for them to eat adult food at 6-8 weeks? Is it a problem to give them bread, kale, lettuce?

They can eat adult food if it's not the layer formula - that would be too young for them to have the extra calcium (see BuffOrpington88's post above). I start mine out with the Purina Start & grow medicated, then switch them over to Flockraiser (higher protein and no calcium)...and then keep all of them on the Flockraiser (and later they all have access to a pvc tube full of oyster shell) for when they get to point of lay. Makes it easier as the bigger girls are already eating Flockraiser so nobody eats food they're not supposed to get. They can have the treats you mentioned, but keep the treats at 10% or less of their daily intake. Also make sure if you give treats that they've had exposure to or access to grit. I believe there's 3 main sizes of grit that you'd offer at different times in their cycle. I normally give chick grit from day 5 or so and then at about 2 to 3 weeks start letting them out in the yard a couple hours a day to pick up what grit they can find. I keep the big girl grit in a pvc tube for when they get older. May try to hunt down a bag of the 'medium' grit this time around but it's hard to find in my area.

 

[Jenny1967]

MOST helpful. Glad to report the chicks are thriving thanks to your advice!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Before you can talk about "medicated" feed, you need to know what the medicine is that makes it medicated. Some are related to coccodiosis only and have nothing to do with anything else. These are even split into types that allow the chicks to develop and immunity and those that don't allow them to develop immunity. There are some that may work on other things than coccidiosis. There are some that handle coccidiosis plus other things. When I go to the medicine cabinet to get some medicine, I look to see what kind of medicine it is before I take it. You should be able to get some pretty good information by reading what is on the bag, but you might need to do a little more research to know what you are dealing with. The words coccidiostat and coccidiocide are good clues. Coccidiostats allow immunity to develop. Coccidiocides do not allow immunity to develop.

With all that said, a majority of chick feed sold as medicated contains an Amprolium-like product in a concentration that, if that is all they eat, will help reduce the chances of them getting coccidiosis and will allow them to develop immunity. It is a coccidiostat in that concentration. Coccidiosis is caused by protozoa that can live in the ground. There are different kinds of this protozoa. Immunity to one does not give immunity to all. This protozoa can live and reproduce in the chickens intestines. Normally some of this protozoa is not a problem. The problem is when the protozoa multiplies to such great numbers it can cause a problem. This protozoa can live and multiply in wet chicken manure. Most of the time wet manure contributes to the chicks developing a problem with coccidiosis. The chicks eat the wet manure and the numbers get out of hand. A fairly dry brooder is a real good safeguard against problems with coccidiosis.

The way the Amprolium works, it interferes with the protozoa multiplying in the chicks intestines, thus keeping the number down. It does not stop all reproduction, just stops some reproduction. The chick can still have a problem with coccidiosis if the brooder is wet.

The Amprolium will do absolutely no good if the protozoa is not present to start with. It won’t hurt anything, it just won’t help. If your chicks are raised in a brooder and never see dirt, they are unlikely to be exposed to the protozoa until they leave the brooder and are exposed to dirt. Depending in how you raise your chicks, it may make more sense to feed them medicated feed when they leave the brooder for two or three weeks.

I purposely put some dirt from the run into the brooder about Day 3 so they are exposed to any protozoa while they are young when they can best develop immunity. I do not feed medicated feed but keep my brooder fairly dry. I’ve never had a problem with coccidiosis. If I had, I might do differently.

Amprolium in dosages higher than what is normally in medicated feed is used to treat coccidiosis. The dosage in medicated feed is not that high. It should be used as a preventative and not a treatment. Coccidiosis can kill chickens. If you have an active case, you need to actively treat it.

If you feed things other than just the medicated feed, you reduce the dosage levels accordingly. It will still inhibit the protozoa from reproducing, just not inhibit it as much. There is nothing wrong with that. It will still help, if the protozoa is present to start with.

A lot of the research done on this and a lot of the recommendations for these are made for commercial flocks. Most of us are not raising the thousands of chicks the commercial places raise and our conditions are normally different. I read some of those reports and studies but I try to convert them to my situation, which is not a mass commercial situation.

Hopefully you will get something from all this rambling to help you. Good luck!!

A good way to protect your young biddies is to also brooder them on a wire floored brooder for the first 3 or 4 weeks of life. Therefor your chicks are about 12" above the contaminated wet ground and the ground it's self is where the worst of the Coccidiosis infection comes from. 1/4 inch hardware cloth is my favorite wire flooring to use for this purpose although 1/8th inch hardware cloth is also good for smaller peeps.

 

[mhay1]

Hi Ridgerunner, after reading this thread I read in your post that you did not use the medicated starter when adding grass and dirt to the brooder. I wanted to stay with organic starter, (which my understanding cannot be medicated) but also got concerned when I added some grass with soil to my chicks brooder. Some are recommending to use the medicated starter if I do add the dirt, but I am reading that you did not. What is your advice on this matter? I quickly removed the grass and dirt when I read the possibility of my chicks getting coccidia unless I use medicated feed. My chicks are 7 days old.
Thanks.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm not RR, but I'll give you my take: Cocci are everywhere. They are in normal chicken guts. They only become a problem when the chicken has a compromised immune system, or if the environment is wet and allows the cocci to proliferate to the point that they overcome the healthy balance of organisms in the chicken gut. Your chicks need to be exposed to the soil so they can start to develop a healthy immunity, and pick up the good bacteria and fungi that will help their guts fight off the bad guys. The best time to do this is in the first 2 weeks after hatch while they have some immunity left in their system from their mother. (similar to the human baby having some immunity from his mother during the neonatal period) I've never used medicated feed. Get my chicks exposed to the soil shortly after they figure out what the chick feed and water are all about. Never had issues with coccidiosis.

 

[mhay1]

Okay, that makes sense now. thank you for your advice. Do you think it would be okay to feed the chicks medicated feed for a couple of weeks just to be on the safe side or is that just personal preference? They loved the grass/dirt clumps when I put it in their brooder, they did start to eat the grass too, is that okay? I am not giving them any chick grit yet, but I did buy some. When should I start giving it to them and what about treats, what and when can I give those? Sorry for all the questions, we first timers are like a mom giving birth for the first time. I have 6 grown children and by child #3 nothing phased me, but with the first, yikes a lot of worries and sleepless nights, ha !

 

[azygous]

I concur with Lazy and Ridge. I recently raised four chicks on non-medicated organic starter because that's the only chick feed I could find at TSC. I supplied the chicks with grass clumps still growing in dirt where wild turkeys and all my flock regularly hang out. They happily scratched in and ate the grass and dirt over the first three weeks of their little lives.

Now they are healthy two-month olds with zero problems. Not only did they get "inoculated" against coccidiosis while eating the dirt, they also picked up valuable protection against Marek's from the wild turkeys' less virulent form of the disease.

A lot of the "advice" you will find here is from people who really don't know or understand why they follow this rule or that rule, and they pass on prohibitions and over-protective practices believing what they've been told is scripture. You really need critical thinking abilities to weed out the valuable advice from the less informed, even though I do acknowledge people commenting here mean well.

To answer your question, no, it's not necessary to feed medicated feed. Skip it. Cocci, if your chicks do happen to get it, is easily treated with amprolium, the medication in medicated feed.

 

[lazy gardener]

Okay, that makes sense now. thank you for your advice. Do you think it would be okay to feed the chicks medicated feed for a couple of weeks just to be on the safe side or is that just personal preference? They loved the grass/dirt clumps when I put it in their brooder,they did start to eat the grass too, is that okay?I am not giving them any chick grit yet, but I did buy some. When should I start giving it to them and what about treats, what and when can I give those? Sorry for all the questions, we first timers are like a mom giving birth for the first time. I have 6 grown children and by child #3 nothing phased me, but with the first, yikes a lot of worries and sleepless nights, ha !

Go ahead and give them some chick grit. I never buy it myself, cause I just scrape some gravel up from my driveway. However, I do buy a bag of grit to give to my adult flock in the winter when there is no access to bare ground from December through April! Start the grit when ever you give the chicks anything other than prepared chick or chicken feed. (grass included). The beauty of sod clumps is that it shoud include some grit, unless you live in an area that is nothing but clay or sand. The choice for or against medicated feed is strictly personal, as is vaccinating chicks. Don't buy a guilt trip either way.

 

[mhay1]

Thanks so much. Should I offer the grass w/dirt daily or just a few times a week? Ans do I need to disinfect the brooder and the waterer with the 9/1 ratio of water to bleach every time I change/clean it? I've been rinsing it out thoroughly with water each time, is that good enough?. Thanks.