Spoiled chicks??

[leiya]

Im new to having chicks! Ive got 10 bigger chicks and 3 ducks @3 mo old, and 7 bantams that are @ 1 mo old. Ive bern feeding mash. Yesterday the feed store gave me hen starter accidentaly. None of them ate it and were all mad!! Can i just keep them on mash forever since it doesnt seem like they will be easy to switch them?! The feed store guy said that the madh is like steaks and starter is like a sandwhich!! Lol is this true!

 

[city0squack]

They have got to eat something!! Try mixing the mash and starter together then slowly add more starter 2 days by 2 days until its completely starter. Tell me if this helps..

 

[Den in Penn]

Mash is feed just out of the mill, it can be any formula starter, grower, layer. Mash, pellets and crumble are forms the feed comes in. Yes they can be on a mash form feed all their lives. There is no reason they couldn't eat the starter, if the layers have a calcium supplement on the side. If they are being picky you can mix it as cityOsqack said, or add some water to moisten it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are two different things that might help you understand about chicken feed. First, how it is made.

They grind all the ingredients together and mix them. That is called mash. To make pellets, they wet that mash, push it through a dye, and quickly dry it. To make crumble, they slightly crush the pellets. It’s all the same thing nutritionally since the ingredients are the same, but depending on the machinery you use to automatic feed or the feeders you use, one might work better than the other.

Then they have the different analysis. If you look at the label, you will see different percents of nutrients like protein, fiber, calcium, salt, and other things. That’s the difference in Starter, Grower, Developer, Layer, Flock Raiser, and all the other things they call them, the actual ingredients in them. It doesn’t matter if that if mash, crumble, or pellets.

The big difference in Layer is that it has really high calcium content so hens can use that extra calcium for their egg shells. Young growing chicks should not be fed Layer because that extra calcium can harm them, especially their liver and kidneys. Once they are laying age, it doesn’t matter.

The only significant difference in all the others is just percent protein. The general idea is that Starter has a high protein content to get them off to a good start, then you can switch to a lower protein feed to get their bodies to better match maturity rate with body growth. But it really doesn’t matter that much which of these you feed at which stage. They’ll do OK on any of them. The main thing is they don’t need the higher protein feeds after they get off to a good start and those higher protein feeds are more expensive. Why spend extra money to buy them something better than they need when they do fine on the less expensive stuff? But there are plenty of people on this forum that do that and it does not hurt their chickens.

I occasionally switch between crumble and pellets. Sometimes they don’t especially like the switch but I’ve never had one starve to death. If they get hungry they’ll eat it.

I hope this helps you a bit. That person at the feed store sounds like they don’t quite know what they are talking about.

 

[speedy2020]

I would go with crumble starter. The 1st week you could take about .5-1lb put into the bag and crushed with jar or a roller. After a week, you can just feed them as is without doing anything. I find the mash end up waste too much feed. I have quail and use 30% game bird none medicated to feed my chicken chicks and it works very well. They are growing much faster and stronger than chick starter.

 

[leiya]

Thanks for all the help. My bag says all mash, starting and growing ration. Heres a pic of it also. The other stuff i had was seeds and corn and broken pellets. On the back it says medicated crumble. I know nothing about chickens or ducks, just that i like them and this makes them happy! Lol