question about food

[pnuts]

my chicks are going to be six weeks old next week but i'm out of chick starter

do i have to buy a whole new bag? can they eat adult food now? is there anything i can feed them instead that would be laying about in the kitchen?

 

[Mahonri]

I would buy some grower or flock raiser at this point and supplement with kitchen scraps.

 

[oesdog]

My neighbor only fed his ground up mixed poultry feed. They were fine so we fed ours the same thing but just gave them loads of Lettice and cabbage and bread. They also got yogurt and boild eggs as well and we put vitamin drops in their water. My outside chicks were fine but the indoor weaker two maybe could have done better with the starter. You have to be very careful of vitamin deficiency. One of my chicks has issues with a curvature of the breast bone - could be a birth defect but also could be a lack of Vitamin B ???? Though as I said all the other chicks are fine so it shouldn;t have just picked on one and my Neighbors chicks are well big and already laying eggs. I wouldn;t be giving them Layers yet they are a wee bit young for that. Maybe after 18-20 weeks???

Hope you get a feqw more posts as I would be also interested in this. I mean wild chickens don;t get Chick feed and Pheasants which are basically wild chickens don;t either but survive fine?

Oesdog -

 

[chickenboy21]

you can buy another bag of chick starter and feed them that and then you can switch them over to grower till about 20 or so weeks of age then they can have layer and whatever fresh produce you have leftover they will love that

 

[Ridgerunner]

It depends a bit on what brand of feed you are using, but the normal progression is Starter for the first 6 weeks, Grower from week 6 until they start to lay or 20 weeks age, whichever comes first. Usually the recommendations are on the bag. In some areas, you cannot get Starter or Grower, but get a combined Starter/Grower which is good from day 1 until you switch to layer. Remember to check the bag. Some Starters or Growers are higher in protein and are meant for game birds, not chickens. Starter should have around 18% to 20% protein, grower 16% protein, and Layer 16% protein.

You don't want to give young growing chicks adult Layer feed. It contains over 4% calcium which can cause bone deformation or liver problems in a growing chick. Regular Starter and Grower only have a little over 1% calcium.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
+1

 

[pnuts]

i didn't know it was bad for them to eat calcium i went to the feed store and they just gave me a brown paper bag full of chick starter so i dunno whats in it. i feed my regular hens layer crumble i believe? something like that anyways.
i'll go buy them some more starter tomorrow. thanks everyone!