Chick starter food out of stock, need advice

[Altairsky]

Hi, I'll have a few chick hatch next week, but my supplier is out of chick starter feed and only has an all purpose for broilers that they eat from the day they hatch to the culling age.
Is this food ok for my chicks? Or do I need to supplement them with something else?
The food I have always available:
- wholegrain polenta (very small corn granules)
- eggs obviously
- small seeds like poppy, chia, sesame, blended linseeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds)
- oatmeal
- homemade yoghurt made from raw milk (yes I'm a milkmaid)
- dried black soldier fly larvae that I can make in small pieces
- hazelnuts crumbles, pistachio crumbles, walnut crumbles
I will keep looking for the chick starter in shops that are far away, but in the meantime I really want to be prepared for the worst so every advice is welcome.
I will be following the recipe here https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...eat-tears-a-calculator-or-deep-pockets.78655/

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

I would feed the broiler feed until the chick starter is available. Making your own feed could lead to accidental deficiencies that wouldn’t happen on the broiler food.

I have fed broiler feed to dual purpose chicks with no bad effects when my regular chick feed or All Flock wasn’t available.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Broiler feed, not homemade, is what I'd do.

 

[Perris]

Broiler feed is specifically designed to make a chick grow much bigger and heavier than normal with no regard to their general health because they are not intended to live longer than 6 WEEKS. I would give anything but broiler feed. Any real food is better than broiler feed.

See, for example, 'Evaluation of the incidence of white striping and underlying myopathic abnormalities affected by fast weight gain in commercially fed broiler chickens' Poultry Science 2021 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579121000547

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Broiler feed is specifically designed to make a chick grow much bigger and heavier than normal with no regard to their general health because they are not intended to live longer than 6 WEEKS. I would give anything but broiler feed. Any real food is better than broiler feed.

See, for example, 'Evaluation of the incidence of white striping and underlying myopathic abnormalities affected by fast weight gain in commercially fed broiler chickens' Poultry Science 2021 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579121000547

I'm glad to hear you say this because for the longest time my local feed store chicken expert has cautioned me about the issues that are created by giving backyard layer chicks, feed that is intended for fast growth/meat birds. I want to clarify that I would only choose this feed on a very temporary basis when chick starter is not available, until I can acquire chick starter.

 

[Altairsky]

I took a 1 hour and half drive today and I got the chick starter food so everything is ready now.
Yeah I really didn't want to feed them the broiler food because it's designed for birds that will die at 6 weeks so who knows what ugly stuff they put in there.
Being an extreme wholefooder myself, it stinks to give my birds industrial GMO pellets but it's my first hatch so I just don't want to make mistakes with custom recipes.

 

[nuthatched]

I took a 1 hour and half drive today and I got the chick starter food so everything is ready now.
Yeah I really didn't want to feed them the broiler food because it's designed for birds that will die at 6 weeks so who knows what ugly stuff they put in there.
Being an extreme wholefooder myself, it stinks to give my birds industrial GMO pellets but it's my first hatch so I just don't want to make mistakes with custom recipes.

There's no "ugly stuff" in meatbird feed, it's simply a higher protein feed to support the fadt griwth rate of meaties. You can also feed all flock feed, or any high protein, low calcium feed.

 

[LaFleche]

Being an extreme wholefooder myself, it stinks to give my birds industrial GMO pellets but it's my first hatch so I just don't want to make mistakes with custom recipes.

Good decision, but make sure to provide them with some additional animal protein as in boiled eggs or curd cheese once ot twice a week as the industrial chick starter usually only contains plant based protein.

 

[Altairsky]

I will certainly do. When is the best time to introduce them to some homemade yogurt /boiled egg? Better mix them with the feed or put in a separate feeder as a free choice food?

 

[LaFleche]

I will certainly do. When is the best time to introduce them to some homemade yogurt /boiled egg? Better mix them with the feed or put in a separate feeder as a free choice food?

You can start the boiled egg any time, just squash it with a fork and mix it with some of the dry chick starter crumble.

For the homemade yoghurt I would wait at least until they are 2-3 weeks old and only use small amounts to mix with a bit of chick starter crumble.
Only prepare small amounts each time so it will be eaten within ~20-30 minutes.
Any leftovers should be taken out immediately as it can spoil easily with the additional heat source im thr brooder.