Poultry grit

[mompom]

I was wondering if any of the grit that chickens eat get passed through their system and out. Do they have to replace it with more grit then? Or does it stay in there till it gets ground too small and passed out? How often should I offer it, or all the time free choice? We live in Florida - no little stones, but LOTS of sand, which gets eaten all the time. Suggestions?

 

[sunflour]

They need insoluble grit to grind food in the gizzard, it passes thru and they need a continuous supply.

You can buy chick grit for the babies and poultry grit for the others. It is different than oyster shell, it won't grind but is absorbed.

Most folks seem to place it separately to take it free choice. I just mix it in with the feed, and they eat it or eat around it depending on their needs. And my gals "recycle" and "reuse" it I think

 

[Ridgerunner]

They’ll use about any rock they eat as grit to grind their food in their gizzard. The grit does get ground down to sand and passed on through their system and out the rear end. How long it lasts depends on how big the chunks are to start with and how hard they are. Most of the commercial grit you buy is granite. They take the debris form a granite quarry and pass it through screens to get the size they want. Granite the size of a pea might last a month before it gets ground down. Sandstone would probably get crushed back to sand pretty fast. Some softer rock may not last long at all. I wonder how long industrial grade diamonds would last? Probably a long long time, but even they would eventually get ground down.

They can use large grains of sand as grit but it gets ground down pretty soon since it starts so small. Most sand is mostly silicon which is hard but fairly brittle. It’s probably more likely to shatter before it gets ground down. Still they can and do use it but as you observed, they need to replace it regularly.

They will probably do OK with the sand but commercial grit isn’t that expensive. If you do get it, I’d either offer it in a separate feeder or just toss it on the ground and let them have the fun of searching for it.