Won't Eat Feed

[luckitri]

Hi Y'all! I have a question about feed. My chickens past and present refuse organic and refuse lay pellets. So lay crumble it is. I have two stores close to me here in Glendale AZ, Pratts Feed and the Stock Shop. Recently I had to return feed to Pratts and buy at the Stock Shop. Pratts tells me both stores probably get from the same supplier but the Stock Shop feed I suspect was not stored in the extreme heat Pratts was probably stored in. Not sure about the same supplier as they repackage. The lay crumble from the Stock Shop is slightly larger pieces and slightly different colored. They still don't care for it much or the scratch either. I am starting to wonder if someone has tampered with the feed - especially with the reports of melamine in Chinese foodstuffs. My chickens will pretty much eat anything other than that feed - even lizards!

So is anybody else having this problem?

I really don't care to keep alot of feed on hand at one time because it always has bugs in it and I don't want them in the house - I do alot of extra packaging of it for storage to try to keep the bugs in the feed container and also keep it fresh. But maybe I have to order from a supplier? The feed store told me there is only one supplier for the entire western area. How to know?

 

[panner123]

Feed the chickens the bugs. They will love you for it. When a chicken gets hungry, it will eat. If they are free ranged they are getting what they need and then some. As it gets colder, they will start eating more of the feed.

 

[MissPrissy]

If they get hungry enough they will eat. Just fill the feeders and leave them full. They will eat it.

 

[JennsPeeps]

My BR went on a hunger strike when we switched them from chick to layer feed. I was so afraid she was going to die. She's the biggest eater of the 4 girls in my flock. Like MP said, she started to eat after she hit a certain hunger point. Now she's fine.

I will say, though, that she did lose some weight and still hasn't put it all back on.

 

[Akane]

You shouldn't feed buggy feed. The nutritional value is degraded. If it were something where it didn't matter like scratch then maybe provided the feed is otherwise fine but if it's your main feed with the proper vitamin/mineral ratios you could have problems long term. I wonder why your getting so many bugs though. You say you repackage it. I have open bags sitting here for the past month with no bugs. I do put my dog food into sealed containers but since they are smaller and I go through them faster I always have cat food bags open and never have bugs. I think buggy feed comes a lot from starting with poor quality feed. The junky small pet food my sister fed her hamster brought in moths and various things all the time and the cheap grocery store cat food my mom has in her garage is always attracting stuff so she has to freeze it. I have various feed all over for my animals and in a year of living here I have yet to find any bugs in my feed. Now there may only be one supplier for a certain brand of feed but you should be able to find other brands. I would look into getting something else. If it was just chickens being picky I'd say wait it out but bugs plus picky chickens my suggestion is look for a different feed. Pull up a phone book and look through feed stores and call up and ask what brands of poultry feed they have.

 

[panner123]

Quote:
Why not give them feed with bugs in it? If your chickens are free ranged, you can bet the farm they are eating bugs. And how many of us feed meal
worms, crickets and any other bug we can think of. This type of food is what the chickens eat naturally. Plus, it is organic. Probably the only thing my chickens get that comes close to organic.

 

[JennsPeeps]

It's not that the bugs are bad for chickens to eat, rather that the bugs have degraded the nutrition of the feed by eating it themselves. Even if the chickens eat the bugs, which they will, there is a loss of nutritional value due to the bugs having taken some of that nutrition for their own growth and development.

 

[Akane]

The bugs ruin the feed. Feed the bugs if you want but you better go get some new feed to also feed them so they get all the nutrients they need.

 

[spatcher]

Put DE in the feed and no more bugs!

 

[luckitri]

There are some drawbacks to DE that makes me wary of trying it.

I simply cannot get bug free feed here in central AZ in the warmer months. The bugs are crawling in the feed bags right there in the stores where all can see.

Now I have some bug-free that I bought at the Stock Shop and they are eating it. I mix my oyster shell and scratch right in with it. If anybody has any percentage charts to guide me in this it would be appreciated. They still prefer lots of other stuff and are free-ranging now for part of the day and so get lots of bugs. . . . and lizards.

We moved and there is an owl living in the tree in our backyard - he seems small but the other night I saw him flying around (or another) and the wingspan appeared to be 3 feet!

I do not need to entice them back to their pen as it gets dark. I often do - with bread or something like that that they love - they still do not care for vegetables like my previous ones did - except fresh corn - they do love that! And when the ants get on it - they love that too!

My dog had a huge bone and they got into it with her because they wanted to pick the ants off of it! It was funny.