Mixing Chick Starter?

[Cornsilk]

Hi all,
This is mostly me being curious.
I was thinking and wondering if there are any safe foods that chicks could be started on, without going out to the feed store and buying a 25 pound bag.
Are there any kitten foods or plants that can be fed to new chicks?

[Patrick]

Don't be penny wise but pound foolish. You couldn't possibly recreate a balanced ration like those that the feed companies have paid professional nutritionists to develop. Your birds would be much better off if you bought the 25 pound bag, and fed it to them until it ran out, no matter how old they got on it in the mean time, than you would if you skimped and fed them kitten chow and dandelion until they were large enough to eat layer or other pellets.

[Dondoyle26]

You could always add fresh greens if available. If you give them store bought greenery make sure you wash them well as if you were preparing for the family to eat. Just to make sure there is no pesticide or whatever gets on this things these days. But thats ADD to chick starter I wouldnt want to run the risk of feeding them something and messing my birds up. I have been surprised with chicks in the past and fed them crackers for a day until i got to the feed store, but even then the salt on the crackers is probally bad for them. I remember once as a kid i fed my grandmothers hens raw rice .. not knowing no better i was little anyway the chickens LOVED the stuff. The next day 3/4 of her birds were dead. So deffinately be careful when you are picking "home" foods for them. I also feed my chickens alot of bread (in addition to layer rations and cracked corn) some will say thats bad but i havent had any problems and they lay just as good as they always have but, then again I'm not trying to enter any poultry shows either with them. A few days a week I pull a bucket of greens when i have time and feed to them just a little variation in the diet for them.

[goosedragon]

You could always add fresh greens if available. If you give them store bought greenery make sure you wash them well as if you were preparing for the family to eat. Just to make sure there is no pesticide or whatever gets on this things these days. But thats ADD to chick starter I wouldnt want to run the risk of feeding them something and messing my birds up. I have been surprised with chicks in the past and fed them crackers for a day until i got to the feed store, but even then the salt on the crackers is probally bad for them.
I remember once as a kid i fed my grandmothers hens raw rice .. not knowing no better i was little anyway the chickens LOVED the stuff. The next day 3/4 of her birds were dead. So deffinately be careful when you are picking "home" foods for them.
I also feed my chickens alot of bread (in addition to layer rations and cracked corn) some will say thats bad but i havent had any problems and they lay just as good as they always have but, then again I'm not trying to enter any poultry shows either with them. A few days a week I pull a bucket of greens when i have time and feed to them just a little variation in the diet for them.

I have a relative in the rice business (Riceland) and I have never heard her mention the huge numbers of dead birds that must result from the birds eating the raw rice in the fields. Of course I have heard the urban tales about why rice at weddings is no longer PC......~gd

[Dondoyle26]

I'm talking about processed rice(uncooked). I am sure there has to be a diffrence from rice that is grown in rice fields verses rice we buy in the super market. Rice in the field is in natural state not dried. I would suspect the expanding of large amounts of dried rice is the culpret in death. I just reserched rice feeding to birds on the internet. Apparently there are many people that believe it does not hurt birds. Which I have found out first hand IT DOES kill birds. My suggestion is .. go feed your birds some raw rice when they all die then you will know. Nothing like finding out for yourself.

[goosedragon]

I'm talking about processed rice(uncooked). I am sure there has to be a diffrence from rice that is grown in rice fields verses rice we buy in the super market. Rice in the field is in natural state not dried. I would suspect the expanding of large amounts of dried rice is the culpret in death. I just reserched rice feeding to birds on the internet. Apparently there are many people that believe it does not hurt birds. Which I have found out first hand IT DOES kill birds. My suggestion is .. go feed your birds some raw rice when they all die then you will know. Nothing like finding out for yourself.

OK, what we are calling "raw rice" is the bone of the discussion. You are talking about supermarket rice, a highly processed product. If it is white rice it has been Thrashed to seperate the grain from the straw, Dried (18-24% in the field to a stable non-molding, non-fermenting 14%) this is then Milled to remove the husk. At this point it may/or not be Parboiled, (parboiled = converted as in Uncle Ben's converted rice) in either case the product is brown rice that is Milled again to remove the bran and germ. At this point the rice may be Polished or Pearled or not. In the US it is Fortified by adding back vitamins etc that were removed in the processes above. Then it is Packaged.
The raw rice I am talking about has only been thrashed and dried to the 14% moisture that prevents spoilage. Yes I have fed this to ducks and geese with no problems so I have found out for my self!
BTW most grains are dried to the extent that the moisture will not cause storage problems and they are usually considered to be raw grains. As far as I know most of these dried grains will swell up when given enough moisture to start to sprout. I have found kernals of flint corn that were twice the size in the goose poop than in the feed!
Is supermarket rice deadly to birds? DIIK & DIIC!

[threehorses]

Chickens must have grit to process greens. Please be careful with young babies.

When they get older you can brood them on clean play sand from the hardware store while feeding them start/grow crumbles. that way when eventually they get exposed to greens, as a treat not as their meal, they'll be prepared better.

Just buy the start and grow, or starter, and please feed them correctly using that so that they develope right. Developmental issues later will manifest on birds that die of various things; you don't want that. It costs more money in the end. A LOT more.

Nathalie