Stunted by Starvation and Dehydration?

[Wisher1000]

That's what I was thinking. I breed Silver Campines (very rare breed) and feed a special "souped up" diet to my breeders during breeding season. It is similar to the mix she was giving as a treat and includes All Flock as it's base. If I were trying to get a bird back from bad nutrition, I would give them the higher protein, higher fat diet until they were back to good condition, then I would back off the super food and keep them on a more maintenance type diet. I agree, commercial feed is great for most average flocks, but there are times when a bird needs something different due to special circumstances. I was only curious if anyone had had a chicken develop problems due to too rich a diet, too fast. I have never seen that, nor read any data on it.

 

[Sutremaine]

I was only curious if anyone had had a chicken develop problems due to too rich a diet, too fast.  I have never seen that, nor read any data on it.

Too fast? Cornish X with unrestricted feed.

 

[Wisher1000]

Well, sure, but I meant a starving bird in poor condition having a bad reaction to high quality feed.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I don't think any studies have been done in chickens, but in other animals, including humans giving too much food after the system has been shut down will result in all kinds of troubles, so we can only assume birds might work the same, ration is not necessarily a rich diet so endless amounts should be okay, but feeding things that are high in fats or things that aren't a part of a normal chicken diet could cause diarrhea which doesn't help anything. But as I said I believe it's all theoretical.

 

[LotsA Cluckin]

Thanks so much everyone for the advise! The chicks are finally putting on weight and have grown nearly 3 times their size just since she has had them! They have nearly caught up to where they should be at this age. She ended up giving them flock raiser as their main feed and about a tsp. of the grain mix per chick daily...I am a vet student who is slowly learning about poultry vet care I examined each one thoroughly, did X-ray's bone density tests, blood and fecal tests and everyone now is right on tract nutritionally and everything is growing at the same speed! I do believe that is a an other month they will be the size they should be at their ages!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That's very good news, it's amazing how fast they can catch up when fed properly.