Moldy bag of feed

[kathy32]

Is eating a little bit of moldy feed bad for chickens? I bought a bag at TSC today, brought it home and scooped from the top of the bag to top off the feed bowl. The hens came excitedly and ate a bunch. I then dumped the rest into my feed storage bin and the bottom third of the bag was one big moldy clump that smelled terrible. I drove back to the store to get my money back, but for some reason didn't think to examine the food I'd put in their bowl. When I got back home and looked closely, they had eaten a good amount and sure enough there was mold on a lot of the pieces. Will this be bad for them? It's kind of too late I guess, I got a new bag and replaced all the food obviously. Also - I've never seen this before, is it common? They didn't seem overly concerned at the store about the rest of the bags?

 

[Weeg]

Mold is very very toxic to chickens. I read a thread a while back about a rescued bantam who suffered from neurological issues because of eating something moldy a while before. Keep an eye on them, I might give them one of these toxin flushes.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/flushes-for-aiding-in-toxin-removal.700526/

 

[The Truth Is Out There]

When I used to have coturnix quail the same thing happened to me. One time two years ago I bought A 50lb bag of game bird feed and noticed it was moldy at the bottom of the bag when we were half way through it!
The top was fine and no chunks, smell or mold was visible so I had no idea. I used to keep it in the bag while storing. I called the company and told them the lot number etc.... supposedly that never happens.
I can say that this has not happened with chicken crumble or any other brand I’ve used since. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen again.
So I would say that it could happen to any brand or kind of pet food.
It doesn’t take much to throw off a dry food to where it will grow moldy.
I will say that I did not notice my quail acting any different and they were all healthy. Thank God!
Hopefully I dont run into that again with my little bantams I have.
Speaking of my bantams....
they are almost 6 months now and one has started to lay eggs!!
I’ve had 3 total eggs this week!
YAY!!!