Our girls won't eat layer pellets and act like they are starving all the time

[Pressman]

Tonight, for the first time in weeks, my ladies went to be with nearly full crops! I think the problem was their not eating the grit. Got the sand back available to them for now, until I can get the chick grit, and bought yet another bag of feed (I have six sitting in my living room now) and tonight when I came home with it they had eaten the greens I left out, plus the cottage cheese mixed into their crumbles and they ate quite a bit of the new bag of crumbles plain. Still won't touch the pellets. And it's warmed up to 20 degrees, so I am hopeful they will continue to eat. Really appreciate all the good help from BYC! Thanks.

 

[suellen123]

My chickens prefer the crumbles to the pellets and my ducks prefer the pellets to the crumbles. I try not to give the chickens corn due to GMO concerns. I do feed them warm oatmeal on cold mornings though and they love it. In the summer I was lucky enough to get a watermelon source and was feeding them a quarter of a water melon a day. It was a cool and refreshing treat for them and they loved it. I also feed them rice and veggies and sometimes bread. The chickens will eat almost anything good I throw out for them but I really feel that the oatmeal is really good for them.

 

[Pressman]

My chickens prefer the crumbles to the pellets and my ducks prefer the pellets to the crumbles. I try not to give the chickens corn due to GMO concerns. I do feed them warm oatmeal on cold mornings though and they love it. In the summer I was lucky enough to get a watermelon source and was feeding them a quarter of a water melon a day. It was a cool and refreshing treat for them and they loved it. I also feed them rice and veggies and sometimes bread. The chickens will eat almost anything good I throw out for them but I really feel that the oatmeal is really good for them.

I tried feeding them some of my steelcut oatmeal and they barely looked at it. What kind of oatmeal do you cook? Old fashioned or what?

 

[suellen123]

I tried feeding them some of my steelcut oatmeal and they barely looked at it. What kind of oatmeal do you cook? Old fashioned or what?

I use Quaker oats or flavored instant oatmeal. I don't cook it, I just add warm water and stir for a nice warm treat on those cold days. I can get a family size oatmeal at GFS for 3.99 and I get about 4 or 5 feeding a for 8 chickens.

 

[YodelingChicken]

I had the same issue with my 6 hens when I got them from a friend. they didn't want the good expensive layer food I switched them to (like people, they want junk food) so I was thinking maybe they just weren't hungry cuz they were free ranging and I thought they might be eating a lot of my compost heap.. well, when they started feeling scrawny, I set out to figure out a way to get them to eat their pellets.. I tried mixing fruits and veggies in, they cherry picked it. I tried a lot of stuff and then I thought, maybe it looks boring, cuz they go for the colorful treats, so I added some natural food coloring to the food by mixing food coloring in a little water and pouring it over the food. I used red, blue, and purple and they ate SO MUCH!!! I did that for 3 days and realized it was a LOT of extra work and decided to try giving them wet uncolored pellets because I noticed they peck at dry food but wouldn't gulp it like they did damp pellets... VOILA!!! it wasn't the lack of color, it was that they didn't like the pellets dry!! so now, I give them a big scoop of pellets and fill the bowl (til its level with top of pellets) with hot water and wait 5 mins for it to absorb it. they are eating the entire amount every day, they are fat, and they aren't screaming all day anymore

 

[yellowchicks]

My girls are still picking at the pellets, so I wet a bowl of pellets with hot water, mix it up with some plain yogurt, they love it! They really don't like the dry pellets for some reasons.

 

[Pressman]

I use Quaker oats or flavored instant oatmeal. I don't cook it, I just add warm water and stir for a nice warm treat on those cold days. I can get a family size oatmeal at GFS for 3.99 and I get about 4 or 5 feeding a for 8 chickens.

Thank you sooooo much for that information!!! I mixed the raw oatmeal with warm water and they LOVE IT!!!! Finally they are eating like they are supposed to. Even started eating their "good for them" crumbles. Still won't eat the pellets even if I wet them and put yogurt on them, but that's okay. As long as they are eating the crumbles, I can deal. Thanks again

 

[lazy gardener]

You can save a lot of money on oatmeal if you want to feed some to your girls as a cold morning treat by visiting your local health food store or co-op. I can get it for .79/#. and it is very fresh, compared to the stuff that sits in the grocery store. While you're there, check out the spices. I can almost guarantee that you'll never waste your money on the little spice jars in the grocery store again!

If your flocks are refusing to eat dry feed... (and if I were a chicken, I'd refuse to eat it dry!) you might want to try giving them fermented feed. It only adds one extra step to the process of wetting it down. All you have to do, is wet it down. Then you can add a glug of apple cider vinegar (with the mother) or even skip this step. Let that moist feed set for a day or three, and stir it several times/day until it's bubbly. You'll then be feeding your girls moist feed packed with pro-biotics. Save back a bit from each feeding as a starter culture for the next batch.

 

[Pressman]

I see a lot of people talking about "fermented" feed but I don't understand the process really. Is it really healthy to feed my girls "rotten" food?

 

[AkChris]

I see a lot of people talking about "fermented" feed but I don't understand the process really. Is it really healthy to feed my girls "rotten" food?

Fermented food isn't the same as rotten. Fermenting adds a certain type of bacteria culture to the food, think saurekraut, kimchi, sour pickles or cheese and yogurt which are a type of dairy ferment. The bacteria culture processes the food to varying degrees, which can make it easier to digest. The bacteria also add their own byproducts, some of which are quite good for us and can increase the vitamin content of some foods. I make and eat lots of fermented food myself. So far haven't do it for the chickens but have thought about it.