So I am new still pretty new to chickens and over the 9 mos I have had them I have had to deal with some doozy issues!!
Anyway the whole point of me getting chickens to start with was my mom loves them for pets. Eggs are a nice bonus. Well she is a snowbird and while she was home over the summer she fed them treats every time she opened the door. They also ALWAYS had layer food and free ranged. Fast forward, she left to go back further south and they protested I suppose for not getting those goodies several times a day. They got skinnier and skinnier to the point I felt they looked emaciated. I consulted a few experienced chicken raising friends and tried several things and finally I stopped the free ranging (wasn't gonna find much to munch on over the winter anyway) and of course kept the good laying food out at all times. Still wouldn't touch it. I resorted to making mash with it. (22% protein and a bit of scratch). They finally started eating and just were not putting any weight back on. My one friend makes her own high protein suet so I gave them one of them also. They devoured it. Out of desperation, I got another one from her, started adding meatbird food and black oil sunflower seeds to the mash. Worked like a charm! They finally put weight on and look like nice healthy girls now. I got some self feeders and made a mix of the layer food, sunflower seeds, scratch and a bit of the meat bird food (weening them off that to prevent them getting too fat) and I give them some Soldier Fly grubs a few times a week.
Now my question is why do you suppose they would let themselves nearly starve? I mean they were seriously bony - probably weighed no more than a pound each and these are full size Black Sexlinks and Marans so that is needless to say far too little for them to weigh. They would eat but just wouldn't put any weight on. So I'm a little afraid that when I take the meatbird food away completely they will start losing too much weight again. What are you thoughts or suggestions?
Anyway the whole point of me getting chickens to start with was my mom loves them for pets. Eggs are a nice bonus. Well she is a snowbird and while she was home over the summer she fed them treats every time she opened the door. They also ALWAYS had layer food and free ranged. Fast forward, she left to go back further south and they protested I suppose for not getting those goodies several times a day. They got skinnier and skinnier to the point I felt they looked emaciated. I consulted a few experienced chicken raising friends and tried several things and finally I stopped the free ranging (wasn't gonna find much to munch on over the winter anyway) and of course kept the good laying food out at all times. Still wouldn't touch it. I resorted to making mash with it. (22% protein and a bit of scratch). They finally started eating and just were not putting any weight back on. My one friend makes her own high protein suet so I gave them one of them also. They devoured it. Out of desperation, I got another one from her, started adding meatbird food and black oil sunflower seeds to the mash. Worked like a charm! They finally put weight on and look like nice healthy girls now. I got some self feeders and made a mix of the layer food, sunflower seeds, scratch and a bit of the meat bird food (weening them off that to prevent them getting too fat) and I give them some Soldier Fly grubs a few times a week.
Now my question is why do you suppose they would let themselves nearly starve? I mean they were seriously bony - probably weighed no more than a pound each and these are full size Black Sexlinks and Marans so that is needless to say far too little for them to weigh. They would eat but just wouldn't put any weight on. So I'm a little afraid that when I take the meatbird food away completely they will start losing too much weight again. What are you thoughts or suggestions?
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