Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Feeding Program For Chicks

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Chicks feeding program

The chick’s phase of the chicken growth stages starts from a day-old to 4weeks of age. During this period, some medications and proper attention being paid to the chicks, especially the feeding. Heat is very important during this phase to activate the appetite of chicks, making them feed well.

What to feed chicks is not the same as what you feed laying chicken.  Day old chicks are fed chick starter feed; Layer pullet chicks need 18 to 21% protein chicken starter.

This type of chicken feed is usually high in nutrients, about 23% CP for starter feed for broiler chicks. This poultry feed allows rapid growth and development of the tissues, bone formation and enhances overall performance during this phase of the chicken growth stages.

The amount of feed per chicken during brooding is not usually determined as chicks are feed Ad-libitum. Chick starter feed is served in a plastic chicken feeder because of easy cleaning and handling during the first 10 days of brooding.

After 10 days, feeds should be served in gravity chicken feeder or PVC chicken feeder in preparation of the other growth stages. Water is one of the important nutrient requirements of poultry. In the absence of chicken feed, water must surely be present. Water should be served using a clean chicken water feeder.
As chicken feed to satisfy their energy requirement, chicks pick up all the energy sources in the chick starter diet. Broiler chickens require high energy diet; a broiler feed contains 3200Kcal/kg, from day old to market size, usually 8 weeks and above.

When the energy content is too low, chicks will eat more to satisfy their energy requirements; however, high energy diet will make chicks eat less. When chicks eat less, there is a high tendency of deficiency of some nutrients as the chicks will not fully utilize the feed.

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