What is grit?

[Amyh]

I have no idea what grit is... is it just dirt with small rocks?

 

[cafarmgirl]

Grit that you buy from the feed store for chickens is ground up granite usually, finer stuff for chicks, larger pieces for hens. Grit that free range chickens would find would simply be small stones/gravel bits that they find on their own.

 

[Rennie]

My chickens eat pea gravel..

I always worried about not feeding grit to my birds.. after seeing them eat gravel..I worry no more

 

[BeccaB00]

grit is basicly grinded up rocks to help the chickens digest their food. If you feed scratch then you will need grit.

You can get it at feed stores.

 

[swordgeek]

Every morning, I place a lovely well-balanced snack on big metal trays in the run, and the birds come running. Immediately, they start to fling the chunk of fruit, vegetables, bread, cheese, and whatever all over creation, and run off with huge chunks of melon or cooked egg to eat on their own. The stuff is totally covered with dirt within seconds. (Why do I bother with the trays???) They get enough grit, I'd say.

 

[elmo]

Ever heard the expression "scarcer than hens' teeth?"

Because chickens don't have teeth, but eat hard foods, they swallow small, often sharp edged stones. The stones are held within the chicken's muscular gizzard, where muscle contractions squeeze food against the edges of the stones to grind it up into smaller bits more able to be digested.

Dirt and sand are too fine to be used for this purpose. Small pebbles and rocks work, too, but the most useful kind of grit has irregular rather than rounded edges, like granite grit that you can purchase for chickens.