Oh darn. I bought them medicated crumbles by mistake. Should I use it?

[NHchicks]

I asked the feed store guy for food with a higher protein content because my hens are molting. (I was going to mix it with their regular layer pellets.) He was out of game bird crumble (he only carries it in crumble) so I saw the broiler feed and the protein content was the same (22% I believe) - but again, only in crumble. Weird. So I bought a 50 lb. bag, and when I got home I realized the bag said "medicated". Ugh. It was $16 too. I don't feel like lugging a 50 lb. bag back to the store.

Should I mix the medicated broiler crumble in with the layer pellets and feed it to my 6 mo. old and 18 mo. old hens? Or will it hurt them or spoil their (not very many right now) eggs?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I personally would not want to eat the eggs of medicated crumble fed birds. I don't know what the official recommendation is, though.

 

[tammyd57]

The medication in feed is not an anti-biotic, so it is safe for your hens, and you don't need to discard any eggs.
I believe it's amprolium in the feed, it's to prevent coccidiosis, not infection.

 

[NHchicks]

Yup, the active ingredient is amprolium. And I do see where it says (print is so tiny nowadays) for prevention of coccidiosis.

Maybe they could use an occasional dose of amprolium?

As long as it doesn't hurt them, or ruin their eggs, I guess I'll just mix a little in now and then. 22% protein really doesn't seem much higher than the 16% in the layer pellet anyway, but yesterday I cooked their eggs for them and it about killed me to give them back their eggs. Ha.

 

[Judy]

I eat them any time I have baby chicks being raised with the flock, because then hens can and do get at the chick feed. Some of them seem to like it quite well and others ignore it.

Amprolium is a coccidiostat. Works by interfering with thiamine uptake in the cocci. I guess theoretically you could get enough that you would not get enough thiamine, but I have a feeling it would take a lot of eggs to do this.

 

[NHchicks]

ddawn, that's a good point, because when my chicks were babies I was giving them medicated crumbles, and I'm sure the hens were getting to it at some point too, and I was eating their eggs then, and I'm still alive. I forgot about that. Plus, I'm just going to mix it into their regular food, they won't get it straight.

Next time, I'm sticking to layer pellets and they can finish their molting process without my 2 cents added in... I'm sure nature knows what she's doing. I'm trying to rush them out of molting before the cold weather... Lesson: never rush.

 

[bobbi-j]

If you haven't opened it, can you take it back?

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
Since they are molting there would be no eggs to consume.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Perfectly safe. It's not an antibiotic, it's likely amprolium which is a Thiamine additive to prevent cocci from replicating and giving chicks coccidiosis.