Using chick starter/grower after some of the girls get to 10 weeks

[Werforpsu]

My chicks are multiple ages (2-8 weeks give or take) but since there are 11 of them, we bought the 50 pound bag of Dumor Chick Starter/Grower. They are all peacefully existing in the brooder. We only have 1 at the 8 week age. The rest are 2-4 weeks max.

Do I need to worry about giving her chick starter/grower after 10 weeks?

AND if I change over to another feed ( like purina flock raiser that would work for all of them), what do I do with the leftover chick feed? ...I don't want it to go bad or get thrown out....

I would love to finish the bag and buy the next bag as something different...or maybe mix whats left with something else.

Any ideas...

 

[azygous]

Chick starter feed isn't like human infant formula, which is significantly different than regular human food. In fact, chick feed is barely that much different from regular all flock feed, and in a pinch, when the feed store was out of all flock feed, I bought chick starter for my flock.

 

[aart]

: I like to feed a flock raiser/grower/finisher 20% protein crumble to all ages and genders, as non-layers(chicks, males and molting birds) do not need the extra calcium that is in layer feed and chicks and molters can use the extra protein. Makes life much simpler to store and distribute one type of chow that everyone can eat. I do grind up the crumbles (in the blender) for the chicks for the first week or so.

The higher protein crumble also offsets the 8% protein scratch grains and other kitchen/garden scraps I like to offer. I adjust the amounts of other feeds to get the protein levels desired with varying situations.

Calcium should be available at all times for the layers, I use oyster shell mixed with rinsed, dried, crushed chicken egg shells in a separate container.

Animal protein (mealworms, a little cheese - beware the salt content, meat scraps) is provided during molting and if I see any feather eating.

 

[0wen]

I would finish the bag of starter - it won't last long with 11 chicks as the others start to grow. Once the bag is gone, you can go over to whatever grower feed you choose.

 

[ChickenGoesRuff]

I would not worry unless the chickens are acting sick or strange. I usually have my mixed age brooders with chick starter until I feel they are old enough for different feed, then I finish the current bag and switch then. So I would definitely finish off the bag, either by feeding them exclusively chick feed until the bag is empty or mix with bag of flock raiser. I usually feed chick feed until they are 10-12 weeks. Hope it helps!

 

[Werforpsu]

Thanks!!

I guess when I first bought the bag I figured either they would finish it in time or we would just keep giving it to them until it was gone, but then I realized that I wasn't sure how it would affect the older one!