What if you don't use medicated feed?

[Mommysongbird]

Hi, I am awaiting, impatiently the hatching of our eggs and I wanted to ask a question before they arrive.

What if you don't use medicated food, is there anything that you have to do different??

I am going to be buying from a famliy run feed store that has been in business in our community since 1935, so I would like to buy from them instead of some high priced feed store. So the feed they produce is NOT medicated and I have been advised by several poultry owners to not buy the medicated stuff.

So by feeding non-medicated, is there anything that I need to do?

 

[Judy]

Not quite sure why the advice against medicated, unless it's because of what it was medicated with, years ago. Nowadays, it's usually amprolium, which doesn't affect the chicks, it affects the cocci which the chicks ingest. It serves only to help keep the numbers of cocci down while the chicks develop a natural immunity.

Lots of folks feed unmedicated anyway. I'd read up on cocci so you know what to watch for, particularly if you live in an area that is wet or where the temps are warm, or where cocci are prevalent. Sometimes chicks get sick with cocci even on medicated feed, and sometimes they do fine with unmedicated.

 

[Mommysongbird]

Some of the people that I have talked to that did the medicated route ended up loosing a lot of chicks, they just dropped over dead and they had never had that problem before without medicated.

Where we live is not wet or very warm, we're in VA, so cooler weather, the occasional rain storm or two.

I will read up on cocci though, I have read some already.

So should I do anything else with their feed/water??