Chicken boarders

[oneyolktoanother]

just wandering what poultry grit everyone buys as we have had impacted crop problems with one of our hens which ended in her having to have her crop drained at the vets, thank goodness she is better now . The grit we get is quite big and that's what they found when they x rayed her crop big pieces of grit stuck and the vet said to stop for a while but we gentally introduced it back in now's she's better and she has started laying!! But i would prefer to get some smaller grit just to prevent this from happening again. Any advice would be much appreicated

 

thanks

[mollyripkim]

Oh, I hadn't thought of that happening, glad she is better now. I have a big sack of mixed poultry grit and it does have some large bits in it.

[Redwing]

If its available all the time they should only take a little at a time and it shouldnt cause problems, it sounds like you were unlucky

 

The grit should pass through the crop and stay in the gizzard where it grinds up the food so it sounds like she couldnt pass it through the crop or had so much that it stuck or took it because she was having problems with the food

 

You could switch to bantam/growers grit which is a little smaller and should be ok still

 

Dont go all the way down to the diddy chick/budgie grit though

 

I dont use the stuff with shell in as they seem to be big flat bits and a hen with a balanced diet shouldnt need extra calcium so if you arent having egg shell problems then thats worth a try too

[The Dogmother]

Some hens can get obsessive about grit and take more than they need; if she's been doing this, then take the grit pot out every now and then.

[bouldercroft]

Dont go all the way down to the diddy chick/budgie grit though

 

I have a mix of both in available - larger chicken grit and some smaller budgie grit - is this okay or is there something bad about the diddy grit?

[The Dogmother]

No, it will just pass through them as they can't use it at that size.

[Calamity Jane]

I have just recently changed from from looked like small grit to something with rather big flat oyster shell in it. I must say it does look rather big, I am worried now. My chucks seem to be spilling a lot of the new stuff, maybe they are looking deeper in the pot for the smaller stuff?