When should I take my chicks off chick food?

[silkieRaiser]

I have month old chicks that i have some broodies raising and I was wondering for the tutus when I should have them stop eating chick food.
Thanks
Salad

 

[Hawgfan]

A lot of chick feeds are starter/grower, and they could probably eat it their whole lives with supplemental calcium at laying age. What feed specifically are you using? What is the protein percentage?

 

[apryl29]

You def want them off the medicated chick feed before they start laying, if that's what you're using.

 

[Orps4life]

Mine were on starter until about a week then crumble until about 5 months.

 

[getaclue]

I like to leave them on chick starter for a couple weeks (ours is all medicated down here), then switch them. A starter/grower feed is fine for the rest of their lives, unless you intend to show them. When the pullets come into lay, you can keep them on the same thing, but make sure they have free choice oyster shell, since they need more calcium. OR you can change them to layer feed, but still keep the oyster shell available for them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have month old chicks that i have some broodies raising and I was wondering for the tutus when I should have them stop eating chick food.
Thanks
Salad

There is no set time. We are extremely inconsistent in what we feed them. If you look on the bag of feed there is probably a chart that suggests which feed to give them at certain ages. Some people follow that, a lot don’t. To me there is only one real rule, don’t feed them excessive calcium until they are ready to lay. Most feeds contain 0.5% to 1.5% calcium, these are fine. But Layer may have 3.5% to 4.5% calcium, this is too much for growing chicks.

A normal recommendation is to feed a fairly high protein percent feed the first 4 to 8 weeks, then cut back to a lower percent protein feed from then on. Once they are off to a godo stgart they don’t need that higher percent protein. Typically the higher protein feed is an 18% to 20% Starter, though some people feed an even higher feed as a Starter. Typically a Grower or Layer is in the 16% range but again you can have some variation in this. A lot of people feed and 18% grower. Some people like a higher protein range, some are happy with a lower protein range. They all work. We all have our preferences but whenever someone tells you that you have to do it a certain way there is someone else doing it differently and having great success.

So part of it is what are you feeding them now and what will you switch to?

Medicated feed can be medicated with different medicines. I always suggest you check the label and see which medicine the feed you are talking about actually contains. The vast majority of the medicated feed available to us in the United States is medicated with Amprolium so that’s the one I’ll talk about. But there are feeds out there that contain a medicine other than Amprolium or something else plus Amprolium both overseas and in the US.

If it is Amprolium and only Amprolium, there is no withdrawal period for eating the eggs if given according to label directions. The dosage of Amprolium in medicated feed meets these requirements. There are medicines that do have a withdrawal period, that’s why I think it is important to know what medicines are present. I’ll include a link that talks about withdrawal period and certain medicines.


http://www.farad.org/publications/digests/122015EggResidue.pdf