My first peafowls

[Wilchild54]

Can any tell me what you think about feeding medicated chick starter to Peafowl chicks? Iv read mixed reviews on this allot of the old-school hatcheries say... NO!

 

[DylansMom]

Can any tell me what you think about feeding medicated chick starter to Peafowl chicks? Iv read mixed reviews on this allot of the old-school hatcheries say... NO!

I raise ALL my peachicks on the chick starter that is medicated with amprolium. Helps a lot with cocci prevention.

 

[Wilchild54]

Iv named him the Lone Ranger, iv felt so sorry for the little one being all so

alone, the little guy was crying all through the night and any time he saw me he would come running to my hand as I reached down into the box LOLLLL So I got him a little teddy bear so he would not feel so alone. here he is sleeping beside it...

 

[Wilchild54]

Thanks Dmom, I always wondered if it would be alright but many will say they are a wild breed and antibiotics kills the good bacteria that help there immune system . that may be true if fed it to them long term, but I always thought it would help a little chick that did not have a strong immunity to get a jump start on life Like you would do for chickens. But being new to Peafowl I thought I would ask ....

 

[MeepBeep]

Can any tell me what you think about feeding medicated chick starter to Peafowl chicks? Iv read mixed reviews on this allot of the old-school hatcheries say... NO!

I feed mine medicated chick feed mixed with brewers yeast to bump the protein and vitamins closer to 'game bird' levels... 1 cup brewers yeast to 5 lbs medicated chick starter, I get the 22oz KAL brand yeast flakes from Amazon, as it's half the price of what I can get it for locally...

 

[zazouse]

I get the 22oz KAL brand yeast flakes from Amazon, as it's half the price of what I can get it for locally...

That is great to know, i feed my dogs brewers yeast.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[PeepsCA]

Just so you guys that add other ingredients to your medicated starter feeds know... when you add other ingredients to your medicated feed or feed the chicks other food stuffs, you are reducing the amount of medication the chicks should be ingesting. When the feeding instructions on ALL medicated bags of feed say to "feed as sole diet", it's there for a reason. If you are going to dilute the amount of medication your chicks should be eating, IMO you might as well not feed medicated feed at all.

 

[MeepBeep]

when you add other ingredients to your medicated feed or feed the chicks other food stuffs, you are reducing the amount of medication the chicks should be ingesting. When the feeding instructions on ALL medicated bags of feed say to "feed as sole diet", it's there for a reason. If you are going to dilute the amount of medication your chicks should be eating, IMO you might as well not feed medicated feed at all.

1 cup of the yeast flakes I use weights 2.8oz, so mixed in with 5lbs (80oz) of chick starter that is 3.5% of the total feed, if you think that 3.5% supplementing of medicated feed 'dilutes' the amprolium dosage to the degree that it becomes ineffective you should really look into effective dosing amounts of amprolium a little more... **see bottom of post**

A bag of medicated chick feed is 0.0125% amprolium... So lets take a 50lb bag of feed as an example, to get to that 0.0125% it requires 0.1oz of medication in that bag... So now we know there is 0.1oz of medication in that 50lb bag... Now if we add 10 cups (28oz) of yeast to that 50lb bag (the ratio I suggested) we get 51.75lbs of food total... We already know that there is still the same 0.1oz of medication but now we have 51.75lb or 828oz of food total... So we work the math to figure out the percentage of medication in that 'diluted' food, and the result is 0.1 ÷ 828 or 0.0121%... That is 4 ten-thousands of a percent less hardly a concern or even a practical measurement difference in the real world...

Just for fun the difference between 0.125% and 0.121% is equivalent to 0.097oz vs 0.1oz in that bag, we are slipping residue dust particles...

I would bet my house that the dosage amount between different brands and different batches of feed varies more then that 4 ten-thousands of a percent as it does in my yeast fortified food!

Here is the recommended dosing of amprolium...

Quote:
I'm gambling on my birds to be in the light to moderate exposure category worst case, and thus 0.0121% 'diluted' feed is a perfectly acceptable as a 'preventative' dosage and is NOT anywhere near the same as not using it at all, as it's still at a plenty effective dosage...

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
I'm gambling on my birds to be in the light to moderate exposure category worst case, and thus 0.0121% 'diluted' feed is a perfectly acceptable as a 'preventative' dosage and is NOT anywhere near the same as not using it at all, as it's still at a plenty effective dosage...
Really? A friendly warning to ANYONE that supplements their chick's diet with unmedicated feeds (sometimes to the extreme %s) and you need to take it up a notch and get your claws out?

Thanks for the mathematical breakdown, but if you think "the recommended dosage" is 100% adequate prevention to ANY exposure to cocci, then you might be the one that wants to do the reading up. Hopefully you have Corrid on hand.

So gamble away, by all means. Peachicks are very susceptible to cocci, even at low levels. There are a great many of us tho that choose not to gamble when it comes to their health. And I'd bet my house and garage on that

 

[DylansMom]

Really? A friendly warning to ANYONE that supplements their chick's diet with unmedicated feeds (sometimes to the extreme %s) and you need to take it up a notch and get your claws out?

Thanks for the mathematical breakdown, but if you think "the recommended dosage" is 100% adequate prevention to ANY exposure to cocci, then you might be the one that wants to do the reading up. Hopefully you have Corrid on hand.

So gamble away, by all means. Peachicks are very susceptible to cocci, even at low levels. There are a great many of us tho that choose not to gamble when it comes to their health. And I'd bet my house and garage on that

X2 I lost 2 to cocci last year and they were eating nothing but the amprolium medicated feed, so apparently the recommended dosage is not always enough. I now have corrid and SMZ/TMP on hand, as well as bird formula and tube feeders.