what to feed my guinea fowl

[aikid0]

What is everyone feeding their adult guinea? I was told to feed crack corn and chick starter.

 

[bantyhen]

I feed my guineas the same thing I feed my chickens.

 

[PeepsCA]

Chick starter is a little too high in protein, plus it may be medicated, which should not be fed to adult birds as a daily diet. I would avoid feeding them too much corn... it's like feeding them twinkies, not much nutritional value, just junk food. Small amounts of it given as treats is fine, but if you feed them too much of it they can end up overweight, with all the health and reproduction, fertility and egg binding issues that typically go with being overweight.

Adult Guineas will do fine on any layer feed or all purpose poultry feed with at least 16% protein in it. Pellets seem to work the best as far as food waste goes, IME. If you decide not to feed them a layer feed then I'd be sure to put out a container/feeder of oyster shell for the Guinea Hens, and if they aren't free ranging or have access to small stones in their pen you may need to provide a container of grit as well. They of course always love garden greens, grasses and weeds, fruits and veggie scraps, and I give my birds a flake of fine stem leafy alfalfa hay in every pen (it's good for them, plus helps cure boredom).

 

[aikid0]

Thanks so much, the information is very helpful. Its also good news because I have chickens so they can share food.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I wouldn't ever disagree with what Peeps says, but I have been surprised at how my guineas love mash! They ate crumbles in the beginning and then happily went to pellets. Just a few months ago I started giving them the soy free local layer mash I give my chickens & they clean up the powders better than the chickens! They eat all the grain pieces and the powdered ingredients down to nothing. Presently I am mixing 16% layer and 19% grower to make 17.5% or there about & chickens and guineas are doing well. I am just surprised at how they took to the mash. So in my experience they will eat mash. crumbles or pellets, whatever you have on hand.

 

[PeepsCA]

I guess it depends on the individual method of feeding your birds, how many birds you are feeding etc Cindy. Whatever works for one individual situation may not always work for the next... so there really is no one answer that works for everybody. Actually the protein content in the feed is more important than the form of the feed, but it my case, with all of my birds... pellets = less waste because I free feed in gravity feeders that always stay full (except in the case where I am feeding certains flocks fermented feed and whole grains only), and so a lot of the feed in the gravity feeders always gets flicked out/billed out onto the coop floors. With thick bedding in the coops where the feeders hang, the crumbles and mash disappears once it's flicked out, whereas the birds can scratch thru their bedding and can still find and eat the pellets... so that's why I said there is less waste with the pellets (this is JME tho).

Last month I went thru a crisis of my feed company deciding to no longer make the mini game bird pellets that I've used for all of my flocks (adults and juveniles... Guineas, Turkeys and Quail) for years, and I had to switch to crumbles

It was the exact same feed, just in crumble form, but I was so not happy, lol... I was re-filling feeders WAY too often and my feed bill almost doubled

(keep in mind I am feeding over 200 adult Guineas and other large or adult birds too tho). Luckily, my feed company took my complaints to heart, (as well as complaints from other customers) as well and decided to go back to making the mini game bird pellets. So all is well here in Guineaville once again, lol