Rooster

crystal1957

Songster
10 Years
Jun 24, 2009
120
1
111
Tallahassee
Would like to fatten up my rooster. He's a Rhode Island Red, and will be 3 years old in March. Vet said he was a bit thin and she would like a little extra weight on him. She said to feed him anything he will eat... Not sure I agree with that...

I have been giving him some dry cat food, chopped up, along with his regular grain feed. A bit of scrambled eggs, yogurt.

How can I get some extra weight on him that is healthy? I have 6 cats and sharing the cat food is getting expensive...
 
Just do what half of Americans do to get fat: feed him a lot of carbohydrates! Such as a 4~5 grain scratch. For health; give him bugs 'n' grubs, as well as weeds in the yard (especially dandelion).

Best wishes!


ETA: Funny thing is, I'm personally in the same boat. I wanted to trim some fat off my body. So, I went on a super high fat, low carb, diet. Well; I lost 20+ pounds in about two months. LOL; more loss than I wanted; so now I'm eating a bit more carbs (starting this last week).
 
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Try suet blocks laced with corn, seeds, some even come with peanut butter. They're like Big Macs for birds and you can buy them by the box 8 or 10 to a box for a reasonable price.
 
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If you got him from a hatchery he will most likely never get heavy and be a little on the thin side.

Now please don't take this the wrong way. I am not knocking people that bring the chickens to a Vet. but most vets [unless they have a background in poultry] know very little about poultry.
Example -
When your vet told you to, " feed him anything he will eat "

Now, Question for you.
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How would you describe his weight? Do you feel a little of his breast bone or a lot What type of feed are you feeding him and what is the protein amount?
When was the last time he was wormed with a good poultry wormier? Does he have mites?

If he has been wormed recently and has no mites you can give him some Whole Oats and Wheat along with a little corn with his regular feed.

Chris
 
Chris--Rooster has been wormed, and checked recently. bony breast bone. he weighed in at 8.8 lbs, vet said he should be 11 lbs. He looked fine to me though. 16% protein in feed.
 
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Rooster almost died after being at the County Fair--the morning I took him to the vet he was almost lifeless and limp in my arms. After some meds, etc. he was crowing in a day or two and now he is his old self--weight is coming back on, but he is eating so much cat food... he doesn't like oats or wheat. Was trying not to buy scratch grain as I buy so many bags of laying feed for the hens...Wanted something on a regular basis that I could feed him to keep the weight on. A suggestion of something I had in the house that I didn't have to buy extra. He won't eat oats or wheat...

I refuse to give him Christmas cookies
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I've neen buying the "special of the week" suet package for my few (2) adult birds. I break off a piece for them each day, for a good energy boost to supplement the fewer bugs we have around this time of year.
 

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