Pheasant Chicks: Unmedicated or medicated Gamebird Starter?

[muscovy94]

I (hopefully) will be having some pheasants hatching in a few weeks and was wondering. Which is better? Unmedicated or medicated?

 

[DaKid]

I ALWAYS WAS TOLD TO USE (Unmedicated ) Game starter for Ducks - Pheasents and Quail and thats what I 've been using for the last 4 yrs .

I only use Medicated feed for chickens and turkeys


hope this helps and other will chim in

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Medicated won't hurt them, I use it, Cocidiosis protection.

 

[dutchhollow]

We use medicated, but we are raising thousands at a time.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We use medicated

Steve

 

[oleduke]

I only raise a few every year, and mostly ring-necks at that. I use UN-medicated for a handful and they seem to stay healthy. This is the first year I hatched and KEPT any Golden's and I am feeding the 6 I am raising UN-medicated now. None are sick BTW...

 

[ranit]

For the pheasant & quail chicks I use Purina gamebird startena 30% protein & medicated with BMD if I remember correctly. This helps control Ulcerative Enteritis (commonly called quail disease). We used a different gamebird starter one time which was nonmedicated but we seemed to have a higher mortality especially with the bobwhites. Once they're about 3-4 weeks old I start mixing in some of our adult feed which we have custom made as we go through about 1000# every 2-3 weeks.

 

[paul88]

I've always used medicated feed for chicks. I used to raise around 500 ringnecks a year for game clubs.

 

[Quail's Hollar Farm]

I wouldn't use medicated if I were you, unless like the other people said you are raising them by the thousands. If you feed them medicated they eventually will build up an immunity to the medication and will be untreatable if they contract a disease later in life. That is, of course, if you feed them that as their only feed until they are adults.