What foods can i give molting chickens?

[Folly's place]

Feather Fixer is okay, but costs more and is lower protein than Flock Raiser, and has more calcium than a molting bird, likely not laying well right then, should have.
Mary

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I was going to respond, but @Folly's place beat me too it, and is absolutely correct. "Feather Fixer" is just higher protein layer feed. For molting birds, Purina's All Flock plus free choice oyster shell is a superior choice, nutritionally.

 

[Folly's place]

Less expensive, too!

 

[Cindy in PA]

Why do companies produce feeds like Feather Fixer & Kalmbach Full Plume & Feathering Feed & market them for molting birds? Maybe they know something we don't? Maybe feeding layer year round for years to molting birds, with some laying & some not, is not a problem? So is too much calcium for 4 weeks really a bird killer? Inquiring minds want to know. YMMV

 

[Fluffy Lambs]

Why do companies produce feeds like Feather Fixer & Kalmbach Full Plume & Feathering Feed & market them for molting birds?

Maybe it's just a marketing thing? I honestly can't tell you anything.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Why do companies produce feeds like Feather Fixer & Kalmbach Full Plume & Feathering Feed & market them for molting birds? Maybe they know something we don't? Maybe feeding layer year round for years to molting birds, with some laying & some not, is not a problem? So is too much calcium for 4 weeks really a bird killer? Inquiring minds want to know. YMMV

Or maybe they are playing on consumer ignorance? Nah, advertisers would never do that...

The problem, in part, is that its not well studied in older birds, because older birds have little to no commercial value as layers. We have to extrapolate effects, in part, based on the known impacts on younger hens, who are studied, and the similarities of biological processes at various life stages.

And no, it doesn't immediately kill them. Like any other biological process where the dosage is the poison, it increases incidence of excess calcium related effects, most of which tend to be internal to the bird, expresing themselves as gout, organ lesions, and the like. But not all. Not all at all. It also results in decreased weight gain for birds still putting on mass and self-restricted feeding. As well as increased Ca serum levels, and altered intestinal pH, which affect their ability to efficiently metabolize other minerals and vitamins. Further, some research suggests the effects vary in older hens between "lean" strains of bird and "heavy/fatty/or fast growth" birds.

If your plan is to turn them into pet food and feather meal at 18-20 months when they begin adult molt, those factors aren't important, and as consequence, aren't well studied. If you plan to keep your pet for years, it may be much more important to you, however.

Here are some additional anecdotes you may consider.

 

[Folly's place]

It's true in marketing that the more items on the shelf, the more sales are made. Feather Fixer looks like a better layer diet, but again, that level of calcium is only meant for actively laying hens. And no way are all the birds in a flock going to molt at once, over only a four week span. Unless they are fasted and in darkness to promote a timed molt. Not best for our birds, BTW.
Mary

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It's true in marketing that the more items on the shelf, the more sales are made. Feather Fixer looks like a better layer diet, but again, that level of calcium is only meant for actively laying hens.
[...]
Mary

I agree, but want to emphasize, that level of calcium is only meant for high-frequency production layers of large+ sized eggs in their prime laying period - that is, before their first adult molt. Leghorns, RSLs, etc.

Its not meant for Brahma, Silkies, Serama, or any of the other of most of a hundred breeds of chicken that don't produce 280+ large+ sized eggs in their first 12 months or so of laying. There is every reason to believe that chickens producing smaller eggs at lesser rates need less calcium, and every reason to believe that an excess of calcium in the diet has long term and progressive health consequences.

So if the bird is intended to live a long life as your pet, why risk it?

 

[3KillerBs]

cooked meat scraps (careful of the fat! - think more of the leavings when you make a big pot of broth/soup),

I have a pot on the stove right now.

When I pick it I will collect all the bones, giblets, and bits -- including the skin which, having been first roasted and then simmered, hasn't much fat left -- and mix it up with the soup veggie trimmings. They love it.

Some people would avoid leaving the bones lying around. I let the small ones become one with the bedding and only rake out the larger ones that don't break down readily.

 

[Cindy in PA]

It's true in marketing that the more items on the shelf, the more sales are made. Feather Fixer looks like a better layer diet, but again, that level of calcium is only meant for actively laying hens. And no way are all the birds in a flock going to molt at once, over only a four week span. Unless they are fasted and in darkness to promote a timed molt. Not best for our birds, BTW.
Mary

No, I' am saying birds are molting for 4-6 weeks, I never said they molt all at the same time. Some are laying, some may not be.