My chickens aren't eating...UPDATE

[Moselle]

Well, actually, they will eat sunflower seeds and treats, but they don't seem to be eating their feed. They are drinking tons of water.

I just saw the other post on Purina Layena; could it be that their food is moldy or something? It's from a new bag. I didn't fill their feeder and so I didn't see the condition of the feed bag - it's all been emptied into a big feed bin. It looks OK to me, but I may not be able to tell from just looking. Should I go buy another bag? Will chickens not eat feed that's gone bad? Or is it more likely illness? They are acting fine otherwise, although not laying quite as many eggs as usual. They are about 7 months old, if that makes a difference.

 

[vickig]

Treats! to many

Your spoiling them. I'm sure your feed is fine.

 

[Moselle]

No, they get very few treats. A handful of sunflower seeds and once in a while some leftover veggies from dinner (like a cupful). I'm sure it's not that. They've always been good eaters and generally empty their 11lb feeder in about 5 days. It's been 4 days and they've hardly touched the feed.

 

[Jarhead]

Are they outside free ranging? I noticed a huge drop off in food consumption when I put the chicks outside during the day.

 

[Moselle]

Turns out Dh got a "generic" laying feed; NOT Layena. And apparently my chickens are finicky eaters.

At least it's not mold or disease! Now I just have to convince them that they have their favorite brand back!

 

[Jarhead]

Stir some of those sunflower seeds into the top of it. I bet they will figure it out quick!

 

[seminolewind]

Boy, that sure says alot for Layena. Maybe I'll go buy some.

 

[Akane]

Mine won't eat feed if it's different. Even if it's something good they won't eat it at first. I gave them some gamebird starter of the same brand as their chick feed cause I was low on chick starter and my button quail don't eat nearly enough to finish a bag on their own. They wouldn't eat for 2 days. They finally got hungry enough to try it and slowly ate more and more of it. Same problem when I switched brands of chick starter. The other stuff came in a tiny 5lb bag which was fine when I had 2 chicks. Then I got 9 more chicks and bought the stuff in the 40lb bag. They are just now starting to eat it and I had to mix the other stuff in with it.

 

[Moselle]

Quote:
If I hadn't waited until the last minute to buy more feed, I bet that would have worked - mix in the new with the old. Silly girls - they can probably smell the difference. Fortunately, they have been gobbling up their food now that they have their favorite brand again.

 

[Akane]

Birds don't have much sense of smell. Actually worse than ours. They go by looks. They'll notice the difference in shape, texture, and color better than us. I can kinda see the difference when holding a handful of the gamebird versus all purpose flock crumbles but after I mix them I couldn't tell you which was which. The chickens can.