Okay-fermented feed-what am I doing wrong?

[calamtykel]

I fermented some feed overnight as per instructions on the forum - I used Purina flock raiser.
My 2 day old Cornish won't touch it! I was worried as they were not eating at ALL. I finally sprinkled a few dry crumbles on top and they all descended the dry food and gobbled it up!
Why won't they eat the mash food?
There are 30 of them and they're all refusing....
Some who did try it shook their beaks and then wiped their beaks on the floor.
Is there something to make it more palatable?

 

[trifecta]

My guys were really goofy about FF at first too. It was probably 3 days before they were really eating it. I sprinkled some dry crumbles around the FF and they finally figured it out- they had to run into it a few times before they figured out they should eat that too.

If you read the FF thread, there have been several others whose chicks did the same thing. After a few day conversion period though, my guys are licking their bowl clean!

Have your chicks been eating crumbles for a while now? It may take them longer to get used to the FF.

Also, I'm assuming that your FF doesn't smell off/bad- mine always has a yeasty smell but not like anything rotten.

 

[calamtykel]

They had been lightly picking at the crumbles since they were only 2 days old when I started them on the FF. I'm hoping once their appetites really rev up, which seems to be happening, I can take away all the crumbles and give them just the FF.

I'm kind of surprised, as we used to have a cross beak chicken and we used to mix her crumbles with water so that she could dig her beak into it and eat easily. Oddly, the other birds LOVED it. - never knew we were "fermenting" their feed-- just did it because it was convenient for the crossbeak.

When I clean out the brooder, I'm going to remove their food and try again.

Can anyone tell me - once you ferment it, can you use it the next day? Can you keep using it until it shows visible signs of "mold" or an icky smell? Or must do it new every day?
if you do it new every day, how do you not have waste if they don't eat it all?