Starter Feed with Antibiotics

[Vacman]

I'm curious to find out how many of you support feeding chicks starter feed with antibiotics. I've never used this food and I think for most of us on a small scale, it's not a good choice. Large commercial farms use feed containing antibiotics for chickens and cattle because they raise their animals in a less than great health condition, either in cages of in crowded pens. In healthy conditions, I would think that chicks don't need the antibiotics, so why would you choose to give them antibiotics. Remember that too much exposure to antibiotics can make diseases resistant to them, and I personally don't want to eat eggs laced with antibiotics. I allow our chickens and chicks to run loose in an electric fenced-in orchard, a natural healthy environment.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

What are you talking about? Most medicated starter food in the US contains Amprolium. Amprolium is not an antibiotic, its a Thiamine antagonist. (a vitamin B1 blocker).

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

What are you talking about? Most medicated starter food in the US contains Amprolium. Amprolium is not an antibiotic, its a Thiamine antagonist. (a vitamin B1 blocker).

Yes this is true. Amprolium helps build resistance to coccidia, which can quickly sicken and kill chicks and sometimes older chickens too. My chicks are all broody-raised, so exposed to the soil from day one. I have always fed medicated (amprolium) chick starter, & have never had even one case of coccidiosis in my flocks.

Medicated chick starter is completely different from antibiotics given to commercial battery hens in close confinement.

 

[.:Rusalka:.]

I get your point. We try to keep everything as organic as possible and medicated food just dont fit in. The very first time the guy at the shop scared us into believing that the medicated food is the only way of chicks survival. Actually no. We gave that to the first ever chicks for 4 weeks, and never again, they get seeds, greens, kitchen things and egg the old way, and they survive with no problem. All other chicks we had since then over the years never even got food of the shop.

 

[K0k0shka]

@Vacman please don't confuse "medicated feed" with "antibiotic-laced feed"!!! Like others have said, the two are completely different. You are only sowing confusion and unnecessarily turning people away from Amprolium-fortified feed (commonly known as "medicated feed" and totally safe). You are making things worse. As evidenced by this:

I get your point. We try to keep everything as organic as possible and medicated food just dont fit in. The very first time the guy at the shop scared us into believing that the medicated food is the only way of chicks survival. Actually no. We gave that to the first ever chicks for 4 weeks, and never again, they get seeds, greens, kitchen things and egg the old way, and they survive with no problem. All other chicks we had since then over the years never even got food of the shop.

It's not a matter of extremes. Either "all organic" or "antibiotics and disease mutations". There is a middle ground, and the middle ground is a perfectly fine place to be, but posts/comments like these erase the middle ground in a lot of people's heads.

 

[.:Rusalka:.]

@Vacman please don't confuse "medicated feed" with "antibiotic-laced feed"!!! Like others have said, the two are completely different. You are only sowing confusion and unnecessarily turning people away from Amprolium-fortified feed (commonly known as "medicated feed" and totally safe). You are making things worse. As evidenced by this:



It's not a matter of extremes. Either "all organic" or "antibiotics and disease mutations". There is a middle ground, and the middle ground is a perfectly fine place to be, but posts/comments like these erase the middle ground in a lot of people's heads.

Never said the medicated food have antibiotics, I said that chicks can survive without it as they did for so long time. Personally I'm not fond of vitamins either for example, we just don't use these things and we are here, so as our chickens.

 

[K0k0shka]

Never said the medicated food have antibiotics, I said that chicks can survive without it as they did for so long time. Personally I'm not fond of vitamins either for example, we just don't use these things and we are here, so as our chickens.

That's the problem exactly - lumping everything into one category of "bad", by putting antibiotics in the same category as something as benign as vitamins. Putting the really harmful overuse of antibiotics in the same category as the preventive use of other medicine that can actually save lives, and calling all of it either bad or unnecessary. "We are here" not because we avoided medicine. On the contrary. We are here today because of modern advances in medicine. Before such advances, people died of all kinds of things we now consider mundane, and so did their animals, and the average lifespan for both people and animals was much, much shorter. But a lot of people forget why that is, and trash the entire field of medicine, throwing everything under the bus. That is very dangerous, as evidenced by how hard it is for us to climb out of this current health disaster precisely because of people lumping everything together and rejecting the good along with the bad.

 

[.:Rusalka:.]

That's the problem exactly - lumping everything into one category of "bad", by putting antibiotics in the same category as something as benign as vitamins. Putting the really harmful overuse of antibiotics in the same category as the preventive use of other medicine that can actually save lives, and calling all of it either bad or unnecessary. "We are here" not because we avoided medicine. On the contrary. We are here today because of modern advances in medicine. Before such advances, people died of all kinds of things we now consider mundane, and so did their animals, and the average lifespan for both people and animals was much, much shorter. But a lot of people forget why that is, and trash the entire field of medicine, throwing everything under the bus. That is very dangerous, as evidenced by how hard it is for us to climb out of this current health disaster precisely because of people lumping everything together and rejecting the good along with the bad.

Also never said vitamins are bad. And never said medicine would be bad. I said it's possible to live without it. If there's an illness obviously we will turn to medicines or herbs, but a healthy system will not need it. Where I live many vaccines are obligatory yes, and so I have them, my mother and grandmother also, but everyone before that didn't, and many children died in those times. On the other hand my husband is from a country where he didn't get any vaccines, like all his family, and his grandfather is still working his farm alone at 90years old. I don't even see that often here in the advanced society, and they really didn't use any medicine, also never had children dying like we here in the past. What I think is that its a matter of how we/our animals live. If you are in a healthy environment, with healthy food, you have no reason to prevent anything, as your immune system is made to fight off illness, and will be strong enough to do so, but living in different condicions, as a lot of chicks in a small brooder, then yes, you might need to prevent things from happening. I don't say you shouldn't use medicated food, but there are alternatives people can consider and you have to respect if someone chooses other ways, as we respect you to choose this, and not trying to convince anyone of anything. (Hoping people will read the label on food, and research before thinking anything of anything) Your animals will not die if someone will not use medicated feed, so there's really no reason to be against things other than you prefer. People can decide on their personal needs if they need or don't the medicated food, and it's fine either way.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Anecdotes are not data. One is entitled to one's beliefs,

Reality doesn't care what any of us believe.

Neither should one expect any guarantees, except that none of us get out of here alive. There are only probabilities of outcome. I prefer to better my table odds, where I believe I can do so at less cost than sitting out. At the end of the day, you rolls your dice and takes your chances - its the only game in town.

This seems a rational approach to me. I encourage others to do the same, if only because they might otherwise express their preferences and outvote me in what I perceive to be their ignorance.

 

[LaFleche]

how many of you support feeding chicks starter feed with antibiotics.

I don't, as antibiotics would also kill the relevant good gut bacteria and I do not see any benefit in feeding antibiotics to otherwise healthy chicks, every other animal or humans for that matter.

In case of confirmed bacterial disease, I would use it, if other (natural) remedies and methods do not work.

ETA: I have never used Amprolium medicated chick feed, so I have no experience to share. The only thing I would keep an eye on while feeding it: Thiamin deficiency might occur if given for too long.