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JackieandMike

New arrivals not eating the omlet feed

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Hi,

Got my 4 lovely chooks yesterday and I was told they would eat one feeder full of pellets between them in a day. So far they have hardly touched them. Is this normal whilst they settle in or should I be worried. They have eaten some corn on the cob and a bit of marmite on toast but not touched the pellets. Any suggestions please?

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Very normal not to eat much initially, firstly due to settling in and their eating really increases when they start laying - I full grub would still last my 3 nearer 2+ days, but they are free-ranging most of the time.

 

Tracy

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I'll concur with the previous posts... our two seemed to have that first grub full of feed for ages.... you just wait til they start laying lol....

 

Make sure you don't give them too many alternatives early on in the day so that what little appetite they do have is sated by the pellets ensuring a balanced diet ...

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Mine didnt eat much initially, treats only after about 3pm here to encourage them to fill up on mash first. They go through a grub about every 2 days now but only 1 laying so far!

Your lucky yours ate anything else , mine wouldn't touch treats for couple of weeks. Today i tried raw brocolli for first time in 5 weeks and they are still ignoring it, and i went out especially to get it :evil:

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Hi Jackie & Mike,

 

Don't worry. Before they lay they don't eat much, then it goes through the roof. I have 4 hens as well. An Omlet grub feeder full to the top would last 2 and a half days and mine are laying.

 

If you look on the back of the layers pellets it will say something like 120g per day - so if you weigh out 480g of pellets and put them in the grub you'll get an idea of what they will eat once they are laying. But they will eat less before they lay.

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I hung veg up early on and they just totally ignored it - it was only when we went away for a weekend and I but some brocolli in the run to entertain they actually realised it was food - but once they started they now always eat it.

 

This week I gave them a pecker block - they just avoid that part of the run and the alien object the mad human has put in there!

 

Chickens do and eat what chickens want - but that's why we love them really..

 

Tracy

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