Reading about the meal worms made me want to gag. There is NO way I'm going to be able to feed them (by hand) to the chicks now - NO WAY!!! My DN has no fear, it just became her job LOL
Pastry Butt?
The number one reason for pasty butt is to high % of protean. Different breeds handle protean better than others. I like starting chicks off with rolled oats, less protean and carbs.
Kenboy - do you grind the oats?
No they pick it a part. When I showed chickens I would soak the oats before feeding. Oats are very digestible. Animal's poop tell you a lot about the animal health, and usually it has a lot to do with diet.
Then wouldn't the chicks outside get it if they are on the exact same feed? I mean how many times have you seen a chick raised by a broody with pasty butt? That is interesting to me.
I have read in several places that oats will help clear up pasty butt.. I used it, but it usually took a few days, where a clump of grass with dirt works overnight.. and it's a lot cheaper! LOL
Hmmm, I've always heard that the main cause of pasty butt in shipped chicks is stress and sometimes chilling. Which makes sense under those conditions, since the chicks have not really fed much in the first 2 or 3 days when the pasty butt first shows up.
Here is feathersite's comments:
"Shipping can be hard on some chicks and a sign of that stress is that they get their butts pasted up with loose droppings. Keep a close eye on them for the first 5-6 days. If this happens, you must clean it up or they'll die. There are 2 methods: A -- you can softly moisten the plug with a warm moist cloth until you can pick it off, this being easier on the chick, or B -- you can simply pluck it off with the down it is stuck to. This is more painful to the chick, like having some hairs pulled, but has the advantage that without the down to stick to the problem will not repeat itself."
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingChicks.html
I did not feed oats to stop pasty butts, I fed oats and the chicks never had pasty butt. Meat chickens can process protean much better than Bantams and most chicken houses feed 14 to 16 % Protean.
Well, I always believed it was caused by artificial conditions... I've read in a few places it was from the brooder being too warm.. Thank you for posting that.
HUMMMM...
these shipped hatchery chicks are the first for me with pasty butt. Nothing I have hatched myself has ever had it. I feed chicks Med Chick Starter and vitamin water and geese & duckling gets Mazuri Waterfowl Starter and vitamin water. The cages get cleaned as needed, usually 3 x's a day minimum until I change over to wood chip litter then cage litter every 2 or 3 days as needed
Sounds like that's the biggest difference....if you need to go hatchery...you run a greater risk...
That makes sense Grow... You go to a Bakery, you run a greater risk for Pastry Butt..
ROFL ZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh gloryoryory!! LOL ZeeZ!! I SO love the title of this thread!! May we have many more like it! Heh...
I'm going to get in trouble one of these days, reading this forum at work. Quite often they make me laugh out loud....like this one!
By the way, I too have a pastry butt....LOL!!!