Should I be worried?

[PanosGR]

Hello there, my nearly 6 months old hen is always filling her crop with soluble grit ( mix of tiny stones and oyster shell), every afternoon so she can lay next morning. Her main food is still grower feed so she can grow up faster. Will too much of this grit harm her? Will she get a calcium overdose or gizzard blockages? As I said every afternoon she fills her crop with it. Is that normal? Should I stop her from accessing it every day? I need your opinion.

Thank you.

 

[Chikenshiken]

Hello there, my nearly 6 months old hen is always filling her crop with soluble grit ( mix of tiny stones and oyster shell), every afternoon so she can lay next morning. Her main food is still grower feed so she can grow up faster. Will too much of this grit harm her? Will she get a calcium overdose or gizzard blockages? As I said every afternoon she fills her crop with it. Is that normal? Should I stop her from accessing it every day? I need your opinion.

Thank you.

Usually I trust chickens are eating enough for their bodies, but!! if you have a gut feeling she may be eating too much for her body then maybe try portioning out the oyster shells. I also give my chickens oyster shells but they only eat very very little I really only do one tablespoon each bowl which they never even finish. Monitor her eggs if you change the amount of oyster shells you give. Just to make sure none of her eggs are showing any sign of calcium deficiency!

 

[K0k0shka]

Let's first figure out what it is that you're calling grit. I know that there are differences in terminology between different English-speaking countries (like the US and UK), and as for other countries like Greece, I have no idea - I guess it depends on where you imported the word from? So, what is it that you call "grit" in Greece? In the US, there is no such thing as "soluble grit". "Grit" is insoluble rock, usually granite, which is used in the chicken's gizzard to grind up their food. Oyster shell is completely different - it's soluble, digestible, and used by the chicken's body for the calcium, to make shells for the eggs she lays. Chickens are very good at self-regulating how much rock and calcium they consume, BUT, they need to be able to tell it apart! If you mix the rocks and the shells together, and they are ground to similar size particles and get mixed up, the chicken may think she's eating calcium for her eggs, but end up eating way too much rock in the process. This is extremely dangerous and can get her clogged up and even kill her. I've read posts by veterinarians who say that they've opened up the crops of chickens who ate too much rock and their crop looked like the bottom of a fish tank! So make sure that what you're feeding your chickens isn't a mix - they need to have their rock (whatever you call that over there) and their calcium in separate containers, and the actual feed in a third container.

 

[K0k0shka]

Here’s what poultry grit looks like in the US - granite rocks sold for digestion in the gizzard:

And this is what aquarium sand looks like (compared to my hand). Aquarium sand - “gravel” - is coarser, too, which makes cleaning it easier.

 

[peafowl_Lover]

Maybe the growers pellets doesn't have enough calcium so that's why she's eating a lot if grit, now that she's laying you should start feeding her layers feed

 

[nuthatched]

Oh yes you are absolutely correct! I didn’t notice the grower feed. Try to check the percentage of calcium in your feed! Mine is at 16% that seems to work for my chickens who lay everyday

That means 16% protein, which is too low protein imo, but it should be about 3% calcium.
What grit are you giving them? I've never seen one with oyster shell mixed in.
I'd stop giving them grit for now, they don't need it too often

 

[K0k0shka]

Thank you for your reply. I actually bought it as grit from a pet shop but I have noticed it contains pieces of broken oyster shell or whatever else.
I can show you a picture of the product so you can have a look and tell me if it is just rocks, mix, or oyster shell and other calcium rich materials. I have one question though. Does grit leave the digestive system or stay in the gizzard forever?
I did not let her eat her grit yesterday and today but I am not sure if it's the right for her as she has started making a mess with the pot soil and she acts like she looks for something.

Waiting for your next reply, thanks!

The grit in the gizzard gets ground down gradually from use, eventually gets too small to be useful and is passed out with the poop. Like how any tool that is used a lot, and does hard friction work, gets ground down over time and gets smaller and smaller. So the birds do need to replenish it periodically, but since it takes so long to wear the rocks down, they last quite a while in their gizzards and don't need frequent replenishing. So chickens eat grit rarely and in small amounts, only when they need to replenish their old worn down rocks. By comparison, they need to eat oyster shell, eggshell, or other types of calcium regularly and in larger amounts, if they are actively laying and producing eggs that need shells. So they eat the calcium product (oyster shell, eggshell, etc.) in much larger amounts and regularly, and they eat the rock product infrequently and in much, much smaller amounts.

You can post a picture and I'll do my best, but it would just be visual guesswork. Do you have the packaging that it came in? Does the packaging say what it is and what its purpose is?

 

[saysfaa]

If we (you, us, or both) can't tell from looking at it or the packaging, you can probably tell by putting it in vinegar or lemon juice. Calcium will dissolve, rock will not. It will take some time - maybe a day or a few days. I can put some oyster shell in vinegar to get an idea of timing. It will vary depending on the acidity of the vinegar or lemon juice and the size of the grit.

 

[PanosGR]

The grit in the gizzard gets ground down gradually from use, eventually gets too small to be useful and is passed out with the poop. Like how any tool that is used a lot, and does hard friction work, gets ground down over time and gets smaller and smaller. So the birds do need to replenish it periodically, but since it takes so long to wear the rocks down, they last quite a while in their gizzards and don't need frequent replenishing. So chickens eat grit rarely and in small amounts, only when they need to replenish their old worn down rocks. By comparison, they need to eat oyster shell, eggshell, or other types of calcium regularly and in larger amounts, if they are actively laying and producing eggs that need shells. So they eat the calcium product (oyster shell, eggshell, etc.) in much larger amounts and regularly, and they eat the rock product infrequently and in much, much smaller amounts.

You can post a picture and I'll do my best, but it would just be visual guesswork. Do you have the packaging that it came in? Does the packaging say what it is and what its purpose is?

The grit did not have any information in it's bag. In fact I saw one of the employees putting the product in a disposable bug and then sold it to me. Because she was not laying eggs then, I asked for something that helps for digestion but the fact that I see tiny shells in it makes me think it could just be for eggs instead of digestion. Every single particle in there is no bigger than a sesame seed. That's why she eats it like it's food for a moment then stops.

 

[saysfaa]

Size of a sesame seed is not big enough even if it is rock.

I'm guessing she is feeling the need for grit (rock) in how her gizzard feels and trying to fix that.

Can you get gravel, maybe from outside? Having a range of sizes would be best - 5mm-6mm and bigger.

Edit to add: oh. The internet says sesame seeds are about 5mm (hm, long or wide?) so maybe I'm wrong. But offering rock in bigger sizes is very unlikely to hurt anything even if it doesn't help.