Chickens not eating pellets-green poop

[Kelllynnl]

my feed store screwed up last bag of feed I ordered. They gave me non gmo pellets and I have been buying a non gmo crumble since they hatched(9 months old) 7 hens and 3 Roos. They barely seem to be touching it and it’s been almost 3 weeks- that being said the snow is starting to melt in some areas and they have been scratching around in those areas. The past 3 days I’ve been noticing green poop. Some solid and some like sludge - I’m guessing this is due to them not eating much? I thought laying had decreased but I found where 3 have the girls have been laying the past week. Some of the girls seem to be less energetic as well. I’m not sure if something else is going on that’s causing them to eat less or them not liking the pellets and eating a lot less is causing problems. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[chickengirl778]

The green poop could be because they're eating more grass and less feed...
It would be time-consuming but perhaps you could blend the pellets into crumble. It would take FOREVER though, and you would need a good blender.

 

[Kelllynnl]

That’s what I was thinking was because of the grass but the poop is getting more sludgy and they are just picking at the pellets. That is a good idea. I can try blending up some and see if they will eat that better. I don’t want to waste a $20 bag of food

 

[MillersFarm]

Could you maybe grind up their food in a way? Green poop is a sign of dehydration or starvation.. Or maybe you can buy another bag of feed (Crumble) and mix the 2 so you aren't wasting any feed?

 

[Kelllynnl]

Ya I’ll try and grind up some then mix it when I get a new bag

 

[Kelllynnl]

I wonder if putting it in a ziploc and smashing it with a rolling pin will work

 

[MillersFarm]

Maybe if you hit the bag with the rolling pin? Don't think rolling it over will do the job though. Got a hammer laying around by any chance?

 

[Kelllynnl]

I just tried with the rolling pin. It worked ok but there’s lots of powder and it poked some holes in the bag and now there’s dust on the floor lol. I’ll give them that wig some meal worms mixed in and see if they eat it

 

[Kelllynnl]

Ok so most of them went to town on the food. I mixed in some meal worms and a small amount of quail feed I had that was crumbled. They picked the mealworms out first but almost finished it all. I hope that was the problem. Stubborn spoiled chickens

 

[rosemarythyme]

You can also try wetting the pellets, enough so they start breaking down into smaller pieces, and see if they'll eat that. Smashing your way through an entire bag of feed won't be fun!