from chick crumbs to rearers pellets

[Tallulah]

Hi all, its been a while since I last needed to ask a question. I have 3 chicks (2 aged 9wks, 1 aged 6wks), I have been reluctant to put them onto rearers pellets because of the 3 week age difference. However, I have now got a bag of farmgate rearer pellets and it clearly states to commence feeding at 7 weeks of age!

My questions are:

1. Will it harm my youngest chick at 6wks to put her onto rearer pellets straight away?

2. Plus would it be best to still mix a bit of chick crumb into the pellets until they become accustomed?

Thanks for any help - this is my first time raising chicks, so still learning.... 11

 

[Marigold]

Hi Tallulah, nice to hear from you again. It's a good idea to mix in the rearers pellets (growers pellets?) gradually in any case, so if you were to do this over the next 2-3 weeks, the littlest one would get the benefit of the extra protein in the chick crumb for the time she needed it. I think its more important that she gets this boost to growth until she is around 8 weeks old, than that the older ones move on to rearers pellets immediately. You could start with 1/3 rearers for a week, then 2/3 in the second week, then 100% after that, maybe.

 

[Tallulah]

thank you for that quick reply. Can I also ask....does it harm the older chicks to be on chick crumb for a longer period seeing as its very high in protein? I'm not too sure what the rearers pellets give them until POL...why dont they stay on chick crumb until they start laying?

 

[Marigold]

Chick crumb is not only small size, so little birds can eat it, but as you say its high in protein and this supports them during the tremendous growth spurt they put on in the first two months of life, growing a whole set of feathers, which takes a lot of resources, as well as body growth. After about 7-8 weeks, they are feathered up enough to keep themselves warm, and the rate of growth slows down. Growers pellets are formulated to support slower, steady growth between the chick stage and point of lay at around 20 weeks, and they have lower protein content so the birds don't outgrow their strength. Importantly, they are also lower in calcium than layers pellets. Hens in lay need extra calcium to support them in making an eggshell most days, especially hybrid breeds which are bred to lay continuously. But growers don't need this and in fact its bad for their kidneys to have excessive amounts without using it up in laying. So its good to keep your young pullets on growers until they actually come into lay or are obviously very near to it.
Whenever you are changing diet to a different sort of pellets its a good idea to do it gradually, so their digestions and taste buds have a chance to get used to it over the course of a week or so. And of course when coming off chick crumb on to pellets, there's the new size of feed granules for them to adapt to as well. Your older chicks will be fine having a proportion of crumb for a little while longer, its not a big problem under about 10-12 weeks or so.

 

[Chuck]

There is not that much difference in the protein levels of either and different brands put different levels in their feeds so growers of one brand could have the same levels as chick crumb in another.. As with most feeding, nothing is critical. For some reason, some batches of chicks seem reluctant to leave the crumb and go onto pellets so it makes sense to offer little of both at the changeover.

 

[Tallulah]

Thank you both for your advice. As I said...this is my first go at chick rearing and I'm finding a lot of conflicting information about when to start them on rearer pellets etc. I know I can always get good, sound advice on this forum. I shall carry on with my happy chick rearing....wished I done it sooner as it is such a lovely experience!