SOS! Cannibalism

[Graciebryant]

@Debbie292d gives great advice, but I'd like to add: stop all treats, snacks, table scraps and leftovers. The more of these things they eat, the less of the commercial feed they eat, and it's carefully balanced and scientifically formulated to provide all their nutritional needs. Their diet may simply be out of balance.

I will definitely try this thank you

 

[McChooky]

I agree get a camera.It can be caused by crowding and lack of food or nutrients but also eat each other once they're dead.Once they start picking each other feathers out and eating their flock mates its a hard habit to break. You may have a predator killing them if you don't have a tight fitting door or use chicken wire

 

[Graciebryant]

The bag may look the same but the contents can vary from batch to batch. All that's guaranteed is the AVERAGE nutritional profile. All sort of different ingredients can go in to reach that, and it's still an AVERAGE, so it will be not enough for half the birds and too much for the other half, since each bird has an individual and different metabolism, and none are usually exactly average - like people, How many of us are average height, average weight, average build?

So maybe the current bag of feed is seriously deficient in one or more respects - assuming that cannibalism is the cause of course.

Old animals need more protein; that is true of people and chickens, and other species.

I cannot comment on guineas, about which I know nothing.

Okay that helps a lot thank you

 

[LaFleche]

How can I get around this? I would assume I shouldn’t feed them raw meat from the grocery store because even when feeding dogs a raw diet you shouldn’t use grocery store meat? Can I cook them some meat? What do I need to get them?

There are a lot of options to enhance chicken feed adding animal protein.

• Milk powder
• Blood meal
• Fish meal (caution in case of fish allergy)
• Curd cheese
• Greek natural yoghurt
• Eggs
• Carcasses
• etc.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

It is not.

The crude protein numbers on feed bags just provide information about the percentage added, but nothing about the digestability and uptake for the chicken metabolism.

Animal protein provides more valuable nutrients for chickens, is more easily digested and better utilized.
But of course, as animal protein is more valuable, it is also more expensive. And since there have been quite a lot of feed scandals in the past regarding the ingredients in chicken feed, most producers now prefer to err on the side of caution and only used plant based proteins in their chicken feed.

Chickens are omnivores and feeding them only plant protein is not natural.

And yet there are thousands of us feeding nothing but all-flock and not seeing cannibalism in our birds.

 

[LaFleche]

And yet there are thousands of us feeding nothing but all-flock and not seeing cannibalism in our birds.

Indeed, which would be rather astonishing taking their omnivore nature into consideration.

But also thousands of poultry keepers treat their birds regularly to black soldier fly larvae or meal worms or add some greek yoghurt to their mash etc. Which will provide animal protein as well as letting the birds free rage for at least a few hours per day so they will be able to snack on all kinds of insects, bugs and dig up some worms etc.

 

[Apis mellifera]

And yet there are thousands of us feeding nothing but all-flock and not seeing cannibalism in our birds.

Many supplement proteins and not all side effects of an all plant protein diet are all the same. If it's working for you stick with it!

 

[Graciebryant]

I would like to add that we did catch and dispatch a raccoon in the coop last night. I still can’t figure out where/how it got in. I don’t use chicken wire I use hardware cloth, both doors have multiple locks and I still can’t find any holes anywhere so for now I can only hope that was the only raccoon and that I find the spot where it got in quickly. I appreciate all the tips and tricks that I still plan to implement.

 

[2 Acres]

Are you sure the ants are an issue?

 

[2 Acres]

Are you sure the ants are an issue?

Nevermind. First figure out how the raccoons got in. Maybe use a small "nanny cam" to see what's going on at night.