What happens If Chickens Eat Turkey Grower Feed?

[yinepu]

Quote:
Well, you know how it goes -- 9 chickens, $18.00; feed for a year, $350, coop and run, $800, having your own eggs for breakfast ... priceless.

Besides, they're good girls, they deserve it. I'll probably just end up running an old age home for hens, but c'est la vie.

lol.. I have just over 100 (not counting broilers) in my "chicken family"... nah.. my girls can deal with the cheaper feed!

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Well, not necessarily better or worse. In some situations, chickens need higher protein than found in typical 16% layer feed - growing meat chickens, for example, or in the situation I mentioned above, older laying hens can produce more eggs with higher protein.

It may not necessarily be better for them, but it certainly won't hurt them. It does cost more, so whether or not its "worth it" is kind of a value judgement.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
Better?.. no.. not really.. too high of a protein content for some chickens can cause health problems down the road.. if you look at the meat chicken section some people will cut down on the amount of feed and the protein content for (especially for Cornish X) to try to keep them as breeders. A lot of that is genetics.. But I have also seen a few layers get too big too fast and have leg and joint problems from being fed VERY high protein food from hatch.
The people that came up with the recipes for most of the chicken feeds on the market have done a lot of experimental trials and research to come up with "balanced" feed for the different types of chickens and stages of growth.. so if you stay pretty close to the recommended you shouldnt have a problem.. course everyone likes to tweak their recipes and how they feed.. but that's the nice thing about having birds.. you do have some leeway..
I know of a few people who feed their turkey poults 20% chick starter and have no problem.. but I have also compared some of those birds to some that were fed 28 and 30%.. and the birds being fed what is recommended looked much healthier.
Here where I live the best I can get is 26%.. so that's what I will feed to my new poults when I get them.
My laying hens will have to deal with 16%.. cause I am not going to spend $20. a bag for 26% for the chickens.. they dont NEED that high of a protein content and feeding it to over 100 chickens is a waste

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
Well, not necessarily better or worse. In some situations, chickens need higher protein than found in typical 16% layer feed - growing meat chickens, for example, or in the situation I mentioned above, older laying hens can produce more eggs with higher protein.

It may not necessarily be better for them, but it certainly won't hurt them. It does cost more, so whether or not its "worth it" is kind of a value judgement.

Exactly! lol.. I think you said it with a whole lot less words than I did!

 

[ivan3]

As was mentioned, too high a protein content can result in problems down the line (particularly roos - kidney problems and associated conditions). However, we augment the flock maintenance with gamebird starter for both the turks and chooks in the dead of winter (not getting their bugs and frogs and the Purina still contains animal protein).

Short term? Pretty much will poop out the excess and your money.

Pretty complete ref: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2114&page=35

 

[kuntrygirl]

Last year, I had a chicken egg that magically appeared under a turkey hen and I didn't know until the baby chick had hatched. Well, I decided to let the turkey be the mama of the baby chick, so the baby chick ate the same feed as the poults. I always feed Purina Game Bird Starter 30% protein to all of my poults, so the chick ate the same thing as they did. The baby chick was fine. Although he grew at an unusually fast rate and he was a Big Ole Boy, to this day, he is healthy with no problems. He only ate the 30% protein for about 4 months and then I switched him because he was getting to big. He is THE largest rooster that I have in my chicken yard. Every person that stops by is amazed at how big he is. One guy offered to buy him for $50.00. I told him no. My boy ain't going nowhere!

Here is a pic of him below. This pic was taken last year. I think he was about 6 months old in this pic.

In this pic, he is having a boxing match with my turkey hen. My Tom is just standing by. My rooster is about a year old in this pic.

So, your chicken will be just fine. She just had one serving.

 

[Stacykins]

My chicks, who are being raised with turkey poults, are actually eating the same gamebird starter as the turkeys. I figured unless I separated, there was no way to make them each eat "their" food. So I just provide the one. The chicks are incredibly robust and healthy, but aren't growing fast than 'norm'. There has only been one chick that got his new feathers pecked at (which can happen regardless of feed), and a dab of blu-kote stopped that right away. The cost is 1$ more for the gamebird starter feed compared to chick starter and grower. Maybe the chicks will grow into monsters like KuntryGirl's huge boy, who knows!

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
You're lucky.. the chick starter here is 12. a bag.. the gamebird starter is 20.
I do think a lot of how the chickens react to the higher protein feeds has to do with genetics.. but since we never know if they will grow super fast and extremely large or have health problems or hardly change at all in appearance and health it's kind of a crap shoot.. you never know until you try it with your bloodlines and see what happens.
My brother had gotten fifteen Jersey Giant chicks several years ago from one of the hatcheries. He fed them 30% gamebird starter from day 1.. within a years time all but one was dead and the remaining bird could barely walk. They all ended up with leg and joint problems and a lot of the problems you see with the CornishX. They were pure Jersey Giants though. Just something different in their genetics where they couldn't handle the higher protein feed. So you just never know how they will react.. some people's birds may be fine with it.. others will develop health issues.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
You're lucky.. the chick starter here is 12. a bag.. the gamebird starter is 20.
I do think a lot of how the chickens react to the higher protein feeds has to do with genetics.. but since we never know if they will grow super fast and extremely large or have health problems or hardly change at all in appearance and health it's kind of a crap shoot.. you never know until you try it with your bloodlines and see what happens.
My brother had gotten fifteen Jersey Giant chicks several years ago from one of the hatcheries. He fed them 30% gamebird starter from day 1.. within a years time all but one was dead and the remaining bird could barely walk. They all ended up with leg and joint problems and a lot of the problems you see with the CornishX. They were pure Jersey Giants though. Just something different in their genetics where they couldn't handle the higher protein feed. So you just never know how they will react.. some people's birds may be fine with it.. others will develop health issues.

Good point. The fast growth rate is why I switched my rooster from 30% protein to a lower protein. He started looking like a Cornish and I was afraid of leg problems and then death.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Here's the biggest issue: protein costs money and the higher protein feed is almost certain to be more expensive.

Your laying hen only needs 16-18% protein and anything above that is more than she requires, yet costs you more. If you feed more protein than your chickens need, they will simply pass it out of their system. Sometimes dealing with disposing of excess protein is hard on the kidneys, but a couple of days of it isn't going to do any harm.

I only have waterfowl, no chickens. I watch their protein levels carefully, but I also toss them a small handful of cheap dry cat food every day, so they can have some animal protein. They digest that better than the soy, which is the usual protein in poultry food. Plus, they think I am giving them candy and I get goose approval points.