Pullets not eating Pellets

[davedavey]

Crumbles

 

[Chaerie]

Wetting the food worked like magic for my chickens on strike!! The guy I bought them from told me what to get, and my birds weren't eating... I was not about to waste 50lb of the stupid pellets. So stoked!! And I got 4 eggs today! Happy day

 

[toomuch]

My hens HATE pellets so i switched to a more powdery food with whole grains and they love it.

 

[dfalco]

One of my pullets resisted the switch to pellets, and being new to chickens, I didn't realize it as quickly as I should have. She lost weight and stopped growing, which was made obvious by the fact that her hatch mates were out growing her. I switched back to crumbles and she recovered.

My hens HATE pellets so i switched to a more powdery food with whole grains and they love it.

I would like to know what you are feeding. I don't particularly like what I'm feeding mine. I'd like to get completely away from corn.

 

[Chickassan]

"IdyllwildAcres, post: 18748577,member: 443847"]I just bought a bag of pellets because the crumbles turn to powder, I hope they eat it!
I would wet some up in a bowl if I was afraid they were not eating, they think its special when its wet Silly chickens
Good luck

Gary

This actually worked! Holy smokes thanks man!

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

This actually worked! Holy smokes thanks man!

Glad to help! I jist started mixing 50/50 pellets and crumbles and they are all over the pellets! Soon we will br out of crumbles and hopefully easy transition to pellets.

Gary

 

[Chickassan]

Glad to help! I jist started mixing 50/50 pellets and crumbles and they are all over the pellets! Soon we will br out of crumbles and hopefully easy transition to pellets.

Gary

All I know is I had 25 lbs of laying pellets they would not touch "except for the boys" and you know, whoopee the boys eat the laying pellets not exactly too thrilled about that. I wet those little suckers and all of a sudden they are gourmet! They really are silly didn't want to admit it but it's true.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I don't have a problem switching over to pellets. Around 10 weeks of age I feel they are able to take that form, not layer pellet at that age of course rather an all flock type feed.

It may take them a day or so to take to them but they certainly wont starve themselves. Before long they are feeding on them normally and there is far less waste.

 

[ColoradoSLV]

I have a similar situation with my six birds. They do NOT like the AgLand layer crumbles I get from the local Co-op, so I switched to Purina Crumbles.

Identical to the above entries, I add water to make a mash out of the AgLand, then they start to eat more.

(They do like the purslane weeded from the local community garden. It keeps the 'I want treats' noises down. )

 

[debid]

Chickens, in general, abhor change. I find food to be an exception but I suspect that it's because the new bag always smells fresher than the feed it's replacing. Mine honestly don't seem to care whether it's pellets or crumbles or mash but they do act like it's a huge treat if it's moistened with water. They are silly.

All this to say ALWAYS check the date on the bag. Stale feed is common in some stores. I've personally seen feed approaching the one year mark although store policy was said to be six months and it's pulled. That is still too long for room temperature storage from what I've read.