Poultry Feed, Starter/Grower, Grower/Finisher. Which feed is right?

[Tweety]

Our chicks are 5 weeks old and have been raised to this age on Purina Start-N-Grow. Yesterday I went to our local feed store to buy more feed and asked for starter feed for baby chicks. I paid for it and they loaded it into the trunk of my car. When I got home and looked at the bag, it's not labelled as chick starter feed. The label isn't very informative. It's made by Nutrena which is the line of feeds this store carries and is called simply "Premium Poultry Feed". I went online to the Nutrena website and it's not very informative either. The "Poultry Feed" is described as "complete nutrient formulation to allow use of a single feed." Nutrena also makes "Chick Starter/Grower" which is what I think I should have bought. Nutrena also makes "Poultry Grower/Finisher" , described as "Nutritionally balanced to match the nutrient requirements of growing birds...". I'm very confused as to which feed is right for my 5 week old chickens. Can I feed them what I bought or should I go back to the store for a different kind?

 

[buckbeak]

What kind of chicks do you have? Hens for laying eggs? If so, I'd keep them on chick starter up until they begin laying eggs. If they are meat birds, switch to broiler feed, or flock raiser- something with higher protein.

 

[Tweety]

Thanks. Yes, they are hens being raised to become egg layers.

 

[buckbeak]

Can you exchange what you bought? Or save it for a couple of months?

 

[Tweety]

I haven't asked if I can exchange it, but I can definately save it for a couple months. Can I feed it to them when they're older and go back and buy the chick starter/grower to feed them now?

 

[Country Gal]

You can give them the Purina Start n Grow until they start laying. Once they start laying, switch them to the Layena.

 

[Country Gal]

I'm in a fog today... just re-read your original post, disregard my last post...

 

[Tweety]

OK, I just got back from the feed store where I exchanged the "Poultry Feed" for the "Starter/Grower". The label on the Starter/Grower" says to feed it up to 6 weeks of age and then switch to "Grower/Finisher". They also make a "Layer" feed which you feed to them when they start laying. I now have a 50 lb. bag of "Starter/Grower". Can they eat that until they start laying or is it only good for 1 more week? (The chicks are now 5 weeks old).

 

[buckbeak]

I fed mine Purina Starter feed until the first one started laying- about a month ago at 17 weeks. I bought some layer feed & mixed it with chick starter for a couple of weeks until it ran out. Now everyone just gets layer feed, even though a couple of them haven't started yet, although they should soon.

 

[silkiechicken]

I feed the start and grow for my girls up till 16 weeks and change it to layena. The poultry feed would have been fine too actually. It is the generic that doesn't contain the amprolium for cocci. Amprolum has no withdrawal time so don't worry about it. The reason the bag says up to 6 weeks is generally for the meat birds... and by that time each chick would have consumed at least 2 lbs of the medicated feed stuffs so they should have some resistance to cocci.