What Feed do you use and Where do you get it?

[b.hromada]

Quote:
they are the cutest when they are "chubby", huh?

 

[Biddieacres]

Mine do not seem to be eating the Blue Seal Layer pellets at all. Getting me a little worried. Their crops aren't very full at roost time.

 

[silkie-mom]

I raised my babies on Dumor, but once they were redy for an adult feed I switched them to Purina Layena. They do well on it, and with only 11 silkies, 25 pounds lasts me well over a month at around 13 bucks a bag.

I also get them a 50 pound bag of Purina scratch grains for 10 bucks to go along with the Layena, but have learned that given the choice they will eat mainly the scratch. I ran out for a couple weeks and kept forgetting to get another bag. All of a sudden I had more eggs than I knew what to do with because they were eating only the Layena.
I still got them more scratch though, because they love it so much.

I also give them anything I have left over from the kitchen. I found out that if you take a picked over head of lettuce out to them, it's like a shark feed.

They looooove cooked pasta and mac and cheese too.
Sometimes on cold days I cook them some rice and take it to them while it's still warm.

 

[leasmom]

I buy lettuce and cabbage just for them during the winter. I gave them some from my garden during the summer.

I make hot mashes sometimes. Like today I gave them some alfalfa-(rabbit alfalfa cubes rehydrated)-and then mixed with whole wheat flour and then mixed in their feed. They loved it. Sometimes I do cornmeal or mix in mixed veggies and food scraps.

 

[silkie-mom]

So is this mash actually wet?
What consistency?

I need to try that.
I'm always looking for new treat items to make them.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
The term "mash" refers to feed that's been ground up, but not pelleted or formed into crumbles -- you can actually see the individual grains and some of the other ingredients. You can add water as a treat, some people will add hot water on cold days or mix the mash in with some oatmeal or yogurt.

 

[Sandywitch]

My 4 girls (I hope) will be 8 weeks old Friday. I just discovered the CPC feed store today. I bought a 50# bag of crumble. Tomorrow I'll run out of Dumor chick starter feed. I hope they like the new feed. It cost $11.87. It'll be larger pieces in it and may taste different to them. So if they get 1/4 cup a day, that's 1 cup a day for all of them. I wonder how many cups are in 50#? LOL!!! That should probably feed them up until they start laying, don'tcha think? I thought I'd start adding a few things in there with it, like oats. I have two big boxes of oats for oatmeal, the kind you have to cook to make it. All 4 are growing quickly, especially Buffy my BO. She's about half again as big as the other three (1 barred rock and 2 cuckoo marans). It's too cold to put them out in the coop yet (which isn't finished being built anyway, not to mention no run) and it's getting very crowed in the brooder, which is a tall storage bin. I'd try giving them other treats in there, but there's no space to put a plate or anything in there. And if it's not eaten immediately, it gets buried under pine chips. Two of them have tried to take dust baths in there and the other two most likely tried it too when we weren't looking. What one does, they all do! The dowel we added as a roost is making them hunch down since it's up near the lid, and Buffy has to duck to walk under it. They would be flying all over the house without a lid to keep them in, and the cat and two small dogs would have a field day with them, so we can't have that!

At what age can you offer them red wigglers? I mean the dried ones for now. I'm hoping to bribe them into getting tamer. Buffy is getting pretty tame, but I don't get much time to handle the other three. I have to lock the cat and dacshund in the bedroom and the yorkillon in his crate to do anything in the brooder lest it end in disaster. Once Buffy sees the lid lift a little, she's watching intently for the chance to either jump up to the edge of the brooder or climb on my hand and then run up my arm. As soon as I have fresh water in there, she wants back in. At least I can pet the others when they're all at the feeder, they're so intent on eating. Usually the feeder isn't empty, but the feed in it is all covered over with pine chips. So I dump whatever is left back into the brooder for them to scratch and pick through. Their chick gravel on a lid gets buried under there too. I wish I had space in there to hang those up higher! The waterer sits on a half brick, and we don't have any more bricks. Besides, I'd be afraid bricks might fall on them if I start stacking them up. They get pretty rambunctious in there. Hurry up Hubby and warmer weather!!!!