where does all the grit go?

[chickenfan]

I find it puzzling where all the grit I give my birds disappears to. Surely it can't dissolve?

 

[Marigold]

They don't eat very much, but i wonder if you have it in a proper grit feeder, which they can only peck at, not scratch in? if the dispenser is open- topped they like to scratch it up and then it gets dispersed.
What do you keep it in?

 

[Margaid]

I find my birds get through a lot of grit as they obviously don't pick up as much as when they were free ranging properly. I have it in a plastic flowerpot pegged down with a bit of bent coathanger but both pots are damaged as I've trodden on them! Must get round to changing them as there is now grit in the grass and I'm not sure how much of it they pick up.

 

[elmdene]

I have mine in one of those little stainless steel dishes with 'arms' so you can clip them onto the mesh side wall of the coop at beak level. However they think it's a really good game to pick it all out, bit by bit, and throw it on the ground. Maybe they are searching for the perfect piece of grit.

 

[Cab]

Depends on where you are I think - a good, limey, flinty soil with ample snails and they're sorted. Not everyone has that - I scatter a bit of grit and shell from time to time, it doesn't do any harm of course, even though many of the proprietary layers pellet feeds seem to say that you don't have to if you use their product.

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Chickenfan. Grit sits in the crop and mainly the gizzard. It is essential to grind up the food do get the most nutrition out of it. Sometimes calcium material is added (seashells) to assist in egg shell building, but that isn't the reason for needing grit. The grit grinds down as well and is poo'd out in small pieces you wouldn't notice, so that's where it goes. Chickens will pick pieces of stone up, but in fixed runs they rapidly run out, so grit needs to be provided. We sprinkle ours in the feeders. If it goes quickly they need more and if it starts building up we are giving too much. They can manage without it really, but will eat a huge amount of food and digest it badly. So your eggs will become very expensive!

 

[chickenfan]

Thank you all! What I meant is that once the grit is eaten by the chicken, and used for grinding up food, how do the stones break down? I give my birds a lot of flint grit. Its puzzling that this can break down into such small pieces as to be invisible when they come out the other end. I have found it one of the mysteries of chicken keeping.