Wow... chicks eat a lot more than I thought!

[garbagePaw]

Our 5 Australorps eat way more than I thought they would. Good thing we got the large bag of feed!

 

[coolcanoechic]

I think you will find a lot of thier feed in the shavings! Ha ha

That's what they did to me! I think I found the answer though. Get one of those long metal feeders with the holes all the way down both sides. It seems to hold the food way better than those round ones.

 

[chicken pickin]

I know I had no idea how much chicks ate when we first started talking about getting chicks. So silly us we buy the 5lb bags of medicated chick starter when in the begining my husband said buy the 50lb bag of medicated feed. I was like no way will they go through that in 8 weeks lol. Little did I know all they do is eat and poop. Well we have 12 chicks who are now 6 weeks old and they go through a 5lb bag in 3 days. Agh I should have listened to hubby.

 

[garbagePaw]

I do have the round feeder... I noticed they are getting more roudy and dumped a lot of it over into the shavings today haha.

 

[RonC]

They waste a bunch, Try putting a piece of paper or plywood under their feeder if they are in a brooder and they will eat what they spill after the feeder is empty.I've about figured out what they eat a day and only put that in their feeder, then they have to forage the rest they scattered on the ground in the afternoons.

 

[afj6710]

The Sussex we have, we got around 5 weeks old. They've gone through a 25 lb bag of chick starter a week! At around 3.5 months old, they are bigger than any other bird we have! They are eating machines (not very smart though

)

 

[Lots A Cluckin]

yes lol chicks dont eat much food at all really the kick it out in to the shavings...week old chicks eat about 1/4 of a cup per day and the rest they kick out...and every week the eat about 1 tablespoon more until they are grown...(that is not an exact measurement just a estament.