Treats/extra protien

[Pecknscratch]

So my neighbor thought Bob our local Guinea was lonely and brought home two chicks a few days ago. I agreed to raise them since I had all of the equipment having just finished raising my chicken chicks. So knowing nothing about raising Guineas I come to the masters (you all) to find out how to do so.

I found out that he needed to get game bird feed instead of chick starter. He went to get some and the local feed store only sells it in 50 lb bags. He tells me he has already bought the chick starter and will not spend the extra for a 50lb bag for only two chicks, and besides the folks at the store told him that they've raised lots of them on chick starter and that it'll work just fine.

So now I get to my question of can I supplement the starter to get the % up? Or I fear it would probably be best to just spend my own precious money to get the proper % feed. I presume I was correct in telling my neighbor that it wouldn't be wasted with only two chicks because he could just continue feeding it to them and Bob.

Also what and when can we give treats?

I have planned to when they get as big as my chickens out in the pen to put them in there with them for a while before free roaming them with Bob.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I would eat the $$ and get game-bird starter. They need around 26-30 percent protein. You can also dry scramble some eggs No oil in a nonstick pan wait for it to cool then chop tiny and serve it in a separate bowl with a bit of chick food on top to get them started eating it. Make sure the egg is cooked so it isn't sticky. Don't rely on that to boost the protein in their feed though. There is no way to measure if they are getting enough.
But Game bird starter is only around 20 bucks a bag. You can feed it to the rest of your chickens too to finish it out so it wont be wasted.

 

[zazouse]

I feed Purina flock raiser which is 20 Percent protein and i feed scrambled eggs to boost the protein level up for the young keets.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
So just adding the egg is enough to consistently bring up the protein level? That's Great Zazouse, I just wasn't sure.

 

[zazouse]

Perchie.girl
Been doing it for the last 6 years with good results, all my young birds free range with older flocks at an early age and eat together ,geese and ducks do not need the extra protein like keets and peafowl so i use eggs.
Gamebird feed can be hard to get sometimes and i am not one to go 50 miles for a bag of feed..