What to feed?

[ramac]

Phase 2 of my life, I now have chickens given to me from a neighbor that was moving. I think I have 2 roosters and 5 hens. 2 ameraucana, 2 orphingtons, 2 australorp, still working on the last one. Previous owner said they did not like the pellets so I bought crumble. They really didn't seem to appreciate either. I fed them a number of things for extra energy during those first two cold weeks, quaker oats being their favorite. I can carry the box through the yard and they will follow me. Should I replace their layer pellets that they are not eating with oats? Is this good or bad for them?

 

[Chris09]

The main thing that they should be eating is there regular poultry feed and anything other than there regular poultry feed should be considered a "treat" and kept to about 10% of there diet so that you don't deplete there nutrition.

What I would do is cut out/back on the treat/s until they eat there feed, when they eat there feed then you can offer them a treat.

The best thing for them to eat on a cold night is the poultry feed, if they don't eat that then you may try feeding a little treat that contains proteins in it.
Proteins take longer to digest than energy and in turn keep them more comfortable through out the night.
A very good treat for this would be Bil-Jac dog food or Bil-Jac frozen dog food.

 

[Dead Rabbit]

You can try soaking their pellets/crumbles in water. Seems to entice typical fowl to eat more. Perhaps it will work with them. Soaking isn't bad this time of yr. it helps put moisture in their system. Which they aren't taking in enough generally because they don't want to drink cold water in the Coke weather.

Most fowl favor grains. They aren't high enough in protein or nutrition to be a regular diet but getting whole grains in their system will help create heat through the digestion process.

I also recommend soaked dog food. But one that has animal proteins and no grains.