Mom says feeding chick feed and any kind of other feeds are bad for chickens.

[undine]

My mom was from china and she worked on a farm. She and her family had chickens, and instead of feeding them feeds.. they fed them raw rice and other scraps. Is feeding rice and scraps to chicks any good at all?

 

[undine]

My mom was from china and she worked on a farm. She and her family had chickens, and instead of feeding them feeds.. they fed them raw rice and other scraps. Is feeding rice and scraps to chicks any good at all?

I feel as if her method of raising chickens is just for eating. Im raising my chicks as pets and for fresh eggs. Feeding chicks any kind of hard food can cause impaction without any grits but my mom says otherwise.

 

[JNB]

You know there a lot to be said about other ways animals are raised and fed in different cultures and parts of the world

.

I have a couple groups of laying flocks and I feed them kitchen, garden and yard scraps all the time. Rice included. As far as grit is concerned... I have always been taught that if the chicks have access to the dirt or ground then giving a separate grit is not needed. My chicks get to go outside after they are about a week old. then I don't add grit to their rations

If you want your hens to be healthy and consistent layers a diet that has 16% to 18% protein is your goal.

Standard commercial feeds that we buy and feed are compressed and often processed and things added to them. Most of us have heard about the whole GMO issues with our food.

Something to consider is that for years before all of our conveniences the easy assess an cost of feeds many people in many countries have raised chickens and other animals like how your mom described.. Those methods worked for them and in many ways we had healthier food because we weren't feeding processed, adapted, modified , treated etc etc etc

Your Moms ideas don't sound too far out there.... Its OK to give scraps to your chickens. Feeding a commercial feed lets you know they are getting a consistent protein ration. That will help with egg production.

 

[undine]

You know there a lot to be said about other ways animals are raised and fed in different cultures and parts of the world

.

I have a couple groups of laying flocks and I feed them kitchen, garden and yard scraps all the time. Rice included. As far as grit is concerned... I have always been taught that if the chicks have access to the dirt or ground then giving a separate grit is not needed. My chicks get to go outside after they are about a week old. then I don't add grit to their rations

If you want your hens to be healthy and consistent layers a diet that has 16% to 18% protein is your goal.

Standard commercial feeds that we buy and feed are compressed and often processed and things added to them. Most of us have heard about the whole GMO issues with our food.

Something to consider is that for years before all of our conveniences the easy assess an cost of feeds many people in many countries have raised chickens and other animals like how your mom described.. Those methods worked for them and in many ways we had healthier food because we weren't feeding processed, adapted, modified , treated etc etc etc

Your Moms ideas don't sound too far out there.... Its OK to give scraps to your chickens. Feeding a commercial feed lets you know they are getting a consistent protein ration. That will help with egg production.

yea, that sounds about right but what im concerned is that.. feeding raw rice to chicks that are less than a week old. Im extremely worried about impacted crop. Im planning on letting my chicks out when theyre about 3-4 weeks, but during that time ill also occasionally let them run around my lawn in a little play area. So ill be needing to feed them grits during their first weeks... but raw rice at aged 1 week? Im not sure =(

 

[undine]

yea, that sounds about right but what im concerned is that.. feeding raw rice to chicks that are less than a week old. Im extremely worried about impacted crop. Im planning on letting my chicks out when theyre about 3-4 weeks, but during that time ill also occasionally let them run around my lawn in a little play area. So ill be needing to feed them grits during their first weeks... but raw rice at aged 1 week? Im not sure =(

Should i grind up the raw rice in a food processor?

 

[Cacique500]

From what I've read rice has very little nutrition for the chicks. I've been giving mine a very small amount of "treats" since they were about 2 weeks old (maybe 3x/week). Grapes, cooked oatmeal, yogurt, apples, pears, broccoli, etc. All soft foods and all cut up into VERY small pieces. We're using river sand as a brooder bedding and I've scattered in some chick grit, even though the river sand is most likely sufficient. I did give them some cooked rice (small amount) the other day and they loved it...but I want to keep them focusing on the chick feed while they're still growing since it has everything they need.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Only rice is not a balanced diet. If they are your chickens and not your mom's then I'd go and purchase a 50# bag of starter. It will last a long time and has all the nutrients they need. I personally don't give my chicks any treats until they are outside at 3-4 weeks of age. They only eat starter/grower until they they are out on the grass then they always have starter/grower with foraging and some kitchen scraps. I've 11 10 week old chicks that have recently started their second 50# bag of feed, they don't eat much when young.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting that rice has little nutritional value. A whole lot of the world’s populations eat rice as a staple. What is the current population of China, by the way?

What the chicks need is a balanced diet. They can live on just rice and table scraps, partly depending on how many table scraps and what is in them, but they do a lot better on a balanced diet. Chicken feed is a balanced diet. If they are allowed to forage where they have access to grass and weeds, grass and weed seeds, and all kinds of creepy crawlies, they’ll do fine, but that depends on the quality of forage available.

A lot of the additives in the chicken feed are amino acids or other things the chickens need to maintain health. They are expensive to put in chicken feed. The feed companies would not put them in unless they were required. This is totally separate from the GMO argument.

If the chicks are eating dried rice, they do need grit. It is possible they could get an impacted gizzard without grit. Not an impacted crop, an impacted gizzard. Those are two different well separated things in their digestive system. They use grit to grind things up in their gizzard, not in their crop. They’ll get a lot more nutrition out of it too if they can grind it up.

There is a difference in what might possibly happen and what will happen each and every time without fail. They might get an impacted gizzard if they eat dried rice without grit, not they definitely absolutely will get an impacted gizzard.

If the chicks have much access to the ground, they’ll find their own grit. You can buy chick grit. Or you can use other materials. Get rough sand like construction sand. Don’t use the really fine stuff like play sand or sugar sand. That goes right through them. You can collect small pebbles or sand from gravel driveways or maybe sandbars in a stream.

Editted to add: You might chat with your Mom about whether those chickens in China were allowed to forage any. That would help balance the diet and take care of the grit problem.

 

[undine]

Interesting that rice has little nutritional value. A whole lot of the world’s populations eat rice as a staple. What is the current population of China, by the way?

What the chicks need is a balanced diet. They can live on just rice and table scraps, partly depending on how many table scraps and what is in them, but they do a lot better on a balanced diet. Chicken feed is a balanced diet. If they are allowed to forage where they have access to grass and weeds, grass and weed seeds, and all kinds of creepy crawlies, they’ll do fine, but that depends on the quality of forage available.

A lot of the additives in the chicken feed are amino acids or other things the chickens need to maintain health. They are expensive to put in chicken feed. The feed companies would not put them in unless they were required. This is totally separate from the GMO argument.

If the chicks are eating dried rice, they do need grit. It is possible they could get an impacted gizzard without grit. Not an impacted crop, an impacted gizzard. Those are two different well separated things in their digestive system. They use grit to grind things up in their gizzard, not in their crop. They’ll get a lot more nutrition out of it too if they can grind it up.

There is a difference in what might possibly happen and what will happen each and every time without fail. They might get an impacted gizzard if they eat dried rice without grit, not they definitely absolutely will get an impacted gizzard.

If the chicks have much access to the ground, they’ll find their own grit. You can buy chick grit. Or you can use other materials. Get rough sand like construction sand. Don’t use the really fine stuff like play sand or sugar sand. That goes right through them. You can collect small pebbles or sand from gravel driveways or maybe sandbars in a stream.

Editted to add: You might chat with your Mom about whether those chickens in China were allowed to forage any. That would help balance the diet and take care of the grit problem.

Well her baby chicks had their mothers, and im pretty sure they were free ranged while eating the raw rice and craps when they were fed.

 

[undine]

I'll be keep my chicks when theyre older in a coop ill be building in my backyard, and a pretty decent amount of grass lawn thatll be fenced off. The part where I live in LA, if one of my chickens randomly end up on the streets and a police officer or neighbors see it, the city will remove all my chickens