Trying to determine if Silkie is sick or broody. Please advise.

[happy-bird]

Is it OK that my two roosters are eating mainly scratch? I read the layer feed has too much calcium for chickens who are not laying and can cause kidney issues. One free ranges all day and each get a bowl of scratch in their crates every evening.

I have a big hanging feeder for the girls to share and lay handfuls of crumble near their preferred nesting spots. To make sure the silkies are getting enough to eat, I have been putting them in the coop an hour before the other chickens. I like to sit in there with them and watch. They are so funny! Also, for that hour, my injured rooster gets let out of his crate into the coop to socialize. He loves the silkies and they don't peck at his head (he is regrowing his crest after being stripped bald and bloody, the poor guy). On sunny days, I move his crate outside. I make sure to give him at least an hour every morning loose by himself in the coop, too, while the others are out cruising.

 

[seminolewind]

Hi, your roos can eat layer feed just fine. Scratch should be treated as a treat. Too much corn will rot their teeth.

 

[happy-bird]

Thanks! I wasn't sure if that bit I read about the layer feed was true, it seemed off.

 

[KayTee]

Scratch should never be the main component of any chicken's diet - laying hen or rooster - as it is unlikely to contain all the essential vitamins and minerals that a bird needs. The rooster that free ranges may be able to get some extras in his diet, but the one that is recovering needs a fully balanced diet, especially if his body is working to repair such awful damage.

You can buy standard crumbles or pellets for non-laying birds which don't contain as much calcium, and which would be perfect for your roosters. If you don't want the hassle of two bags of feed then you can feed all the birds non-layer feed, with a bowl of crushed oyster shell on the side - somehow the laying chickens seem to know when they need extra calcium. Even though I feed layer pellets to my girls I have oyster shell freely available, and one of the girls still eats it on a regular basis. I pay around 15€ for a bag of oyster shell that lasts over a year for my flock.

The other opinion I have heard on the site is to feed regular layer feed to all your birds, roosters included. The people who do that say that it doesn't seem to do their roosters any harm, but I don't really know enough about it to say one way or another.

 

[KayTee]

Hi, your roos can eat layer feed just fine. Scratch should be treated as a treat. Too much corn will rot their teeth.

so that's why my girls have got no teeth!

Nice one seminolewind