Quote:
Chickens don't have molars to gring up their food. The bits and chunks they eat get ground up in the gizzard. But the gizzard needs grit in it to actually do the grinding. Grit is small rocks the size of a pea or smaller in full grown chickens and sand for baby chicks. When they are outside, they pick grit up off the ground.
The chicken starter feed you buy is not supposed to need grit to be digested. Many people do not furnish any grit to their chicks and they do fine. You just cannot give most treats to the chicks unless they have grit to grind it up.
I don't know that grit actually prevents pasty butt. I just know I did not give mine any treats until they were much older, all I fed them was the starter feeed, and the pasty butt stopped when I gave them the sand.
Chickens don't have molars to gring up their food. The bits and chunks they eat get ground up in the gizzard. But the gizzard needs grit in it to actually do the grinding. Grit is small rocks the size of a pea or smaller in full grown chickens and sand for baby chicks. When they are outside, they pick grit up off the ground.
The chicken starter feed you buy is not supposed to need grit to be digested. Many people do not furnish any grit to their chicks and they do fine. You just cannot give most treats to the chicks unless they have grit to grind it up.
I don't know that grit actually prevents pasty butt. I just know I did not give mine any treats until they were much older, all I fed them was the starter feeed, and the pasty butt stopped when I gave them the sand.
