# Feeding mice to chickens



## gila_dog (Jun 17, 2011)

I've been catching lots of mice lately. Rather than throw them in the trash or otherwise try to get rid of them I've started giving them to my chickens. They seem to love them. As soon as the mouse hits the ground a chicken grabs it and runs off with it, with other chickens chasing along trying to steal it. Eventually the mouse gets pecked to pieces and eaten. It seems like an inexhaustible source of protein for the chickens, but there's got to be some down side of it, right? Like maybe parasites or diseases or something passing from the mice to the chickens?


----------



## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

My cats "feed" my chickens mice. I worry about parasites, but not enough to stop them. Interested what everybody else thinks...


----------



## postroad (Jan 19, 2009)

This thread reminds me about the time I lifted the feeder. The little mouse underneath looked surprised and then in an instant a dozen hens with mean glints in their eyes descended on the poor bugger. He was just a bit to big to swallow whole so there was that mad running around that chickens do with a tasty morsel, trying to swallow and at the same time keep in front of the pack. Eventually he was torn asunder and devoured.


----------



## SkizzlePig (May 14, 2006)

I asked the Googles and I'm only finding that tapeworms are transmissible from mice to chickens.

I'm super interested in this subject too. I'd love to have someone with more knowledge than fifteen minutes of a Google search.


----------



## Sumatra (Dec 5, 2013)

My hens find a few field mice once in a while, but I usually don't worry about it. 

I know the mice are healthy since they are on good land and not in disease ridden or insect infested city holes, so I'm pretty sure my chickens will be fine too, since mouse-eating is one of their natural instincts. Just worm normally, don't use poison, and they should be just as fine with it as their mouse hunting counterparts: cats.


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

It's no different than a barn cat. Every now and then we would have to deworm a barn cat but it wasn't constant. I think the chickens are even less susceptible and nearly as good of mousers. Too bad I can't set a bunch of them loose in my house. The mice are living in the kitchen walls. I caught 2 today.


----------



## ZEUS (Nov 28, 2014)

I never knew chickens ate mice. Good deal. I'm learning a ton here on HT.


----------



## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

Our chickens eat all the mice they can. They steal them from the cats or catch them themselves.

I try not to think about it when we eat their eggs.


----------



## Poultryguy (Jan 29, 2014)

But I think they can transmit some diseases to chicken. What of salmonella?


----------



## postroad (Jan 19, 2009)

Lets face it, even if they didn't eat them they would still be exposed to them and their feces. Unless someone can design a rodent proof facility

I see remarkably few signs of rodents in the chicken coop and I imagine the chickens are catching any that cross their path.


----------



## Horseyrider (Aug 8, 2010)

Urgh, I could never feed mice to my chickens. Never. There's a big squick factor here for me. I know my cats eat mice, but a big difference is that I don't in turn eat my cats. :yuck:

Sometimes I'm glad I don't see everything my chickens do. I take small comfort in the fact that the mice are probably organic.


----------



## dozedotz (Dec 12, 2012)

Our hens and roosters, too, will definitely eat mice given half a chance. What amazed me was seeing one of the roos kill a small copper head snake and then do that little dance thingee accompanied by that soft call roos make when they think they have a treat for the girls and want to share...the girls ate the snake! Nobody seemed any worse for wear and they certainly didn't die from being poisoned.


----------



## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

dozedotz said:


> What amazed me was seeing one of the roos kill a small copper head snake and then do that little dance thingee accompanied by that soft call roos make when they think they have a treat for the girls and want to share...


I'd do a little dance thingee, too, but it would probably be just as I saw the snake, not after I killed it.


----------



## dozedotz (Dec 12, 2012)

LOL! Yeah, when I saw the darn thing I was torn between running for the hills and "saving the roo"...he was my best Welsummer boy. But he killed it fast...took off the head.


----------



## Sumatra (Dec 5, 2013)

Poultryguy said:


> But I think they can transmit some diseases to chicken. What of salmonella?


Thing is, Salmonella is a bacteria, and it is present in almost every environment. There are both harmful and beneficial bacteria everywhere. The reason why chickens get salmonella is because is because commercial producers use antibiotics for certain illnesses. 

These antibiotics often prevent one problem, but also eliminate the good bacteria in the chicken's system, leaving a chance for antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria to multiply and infect the eggs and meat. Even then, only 1 out of every 25,000 eggs normally turns out contaminated, so it is seriously overhyped.

Salmonella is a common concern for backyard chicken-raisers, but I've never actually heard of it coming up in small flocks unless they were chicks shipped from a hatchery with a salmonella problem.


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

I saw one of our hens quick-like nail a mouse and run with it, all the while trying to swallow the too big thing as she was chased down by the rest of the flock! So funny! 
Now if only I could get them to eat the just made dead rodents that the barn cats leave out for us. I mean, I ma talking *just* seconds dead... no, they won't touch them. I have considered cooking them down, then feeding... but that just skeeves me out, can you imagine the smell in the kitchen?! lol "What's for dinner hun?" lol

And thanks for the reminder to deworm. Since they aren't laying any eggs right now, it would be a most perfect time to do so!


----------



## osbmail (Mar 6, 2014)

We have a bird house on the porch and two song birds were fighting over who was going to nest there .Than the one started carrying the others baby birds out and dropping them on the porch. A hen happened to be in the right place at the right time and made a quick meal of the baby birds .Wife wanted it all to stop but I figured it was kind of the way nature goes. I have also feed some trapped mice to them too don't think I would make it a staple in there diet but a few once in awhile probably won't hurt. I have free range birds so I always figured if they don't like something or it is bad for them they will just eating some else.


----------



## SouthGAMan (May 5, 2014)

Couldn't be worse than some of the other things I have seen them eat.


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

I don't see how a live mouse has more salmonella than the raw rabbit and chicken I feed my dogs. Salmonella is not this big scary monster. It is everywhere and nearly all animals have evolved to deal with it. Trying to rid yourself of salmonella will likely result in making everything sick in one way or another. Things with a carnivorous nature and especially scavengers have developed even better ways to deal with ingesting such things. Chickens eat anything and everything. They evolved to eat anything and everything. I have never heard of a chicken getting sick from eating anything natural unless they had no options. If they are hungry or bored enough they might start sampling something toxic. They do have an attraction to string, rubber bands, and styrofoam to name a few and you'll kill them easier feeding salty foods than rodents. Parasites or not.


----------



## Sumatra (Dec 5, 2013)

Please be aware that styrofoam, rubber bands, string, etc.. are all man-made products and are not appropriate examples of how their instinct for food does or doesn't work. It's a completely different thing when they're dealing with wild plants and small animals in nature.


----------



## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

I've fed my confined chooks mice on several occasions.
Fresh from a trap: takes them hours to disassemble it enough to eat, but keeps them busy taking turns trotting it around. 
Any mouse nests found: those go pretty fast chucked into the run, the adults get away thru the large mesh but a few scratches and the bite sized pinkies go right down the hatches.
Live adults: mice like to get under the fire bowl cover, I lift the cover and the dogs chase the ones that get away, but one went inside the mesh spark screen trapping itself. I was able to scoop it into a cup and toss it into the 1/2" hardware cloth coop with the pop door shut and 4-5 chooks inside. Didn't take them long to catch and kill it then proceed to trot it around half the day before I assume they ingested it.


----------



## Poultryguy (Jan 29, 2014)

With a gestation period of 19-21 days, an average of 6-8 babies per litter and 5-10 litters per year, mice are prolific breeders. Who will be setting up a mice farm?


----------



## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

SouthGAMan said:


> Couldn't be worse than some of the other things I have seen them eat.


My favorite is when they catch a big spider and run around with the legs sticking out on either side of their beaks.


----------



## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

Poultryguy said:


> With a gestation period of 19-21 days, an average of 6-8 babies per litter and 5-10 litters per year, mice are prolific breeders. Who will be setting up a mice farm?


Snake keepers do it all the time. They smell terrible though. I freely admit to buying my snake pets' food prekilled and frozen. Mice are gross! :yuck:


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

Poultryguy said:


> With a gestation period of 19-21 days, an average of 6-8 babies per litter and 5-10 litters per year, mice are prolific breeders. Who will be setting up a mice farm?


This reminds me of a friend of mine. She told me that when she was a kid, she wanted her own horse/pony. Her mom told her she had to earn the money herself. So somehow she set up some sort of deal with the local reptile type store that she would raise their mice, etc. for live feeding. I don't remember how long she said it took her, but they brought out all the equipment for her to raise them in their shed, and she would cart the mice up to them on her bike I think. Oh, and she was 8 at the time I think. lol


----------



## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

gracielagata said:


> This reminds me of a friend of mine. She told me that when she was a kid, she wanted her own horse/pony. Her mom told her she had to earn the money herself. So somehow she set up some sort of deal with the local reptile type store that she would raise their mice, etc. for live feeding. I don't remember how long she said it took her, but they brought out all the equipment for her to raise them in their shed, and she would cart the mice up to them on her bike I think. Oh, and she was 8 at the time I think. lol


Ok. We need more info 

Did she get her horse/pony?

Did she grow up to be a business woman?


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

mrs whodunit said:


> Ok. We need more info
> 
> Did she get her horse/pony?
> 
> Did she grow up to be a business woman?


Most definitely she did get her horse/pony! If I remember correctly the one she got was the most horrid of beasts, but she somehow still learned from her until she passed or was sold for something easier (which I am sure she helped pay for as well).
A business woman of sorts, yes. She is a stay/work at home mom. Her work part is a personally owned one woman photography business. And I mean GOOD quality. She most certainly has the eye and the talent. 
She also is the barn manager and trainer for the barn where I took lessons and bought (from her, no less, lol) my horse. My mare would most definitely still be there at their wonderfully run facility if we lived in that state and still needed to board. 
And I should add, I think she made that boarding barn from nothing. She saw a raw property of an old slave plantation and approached the owner to pitch her idea/make something tiny better. It has turned into a lovely 20+ horse facility, pastures galore, lessons, kids horse camps type of facility nestled in a little southern military town.


----------



## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

gracielagata said:


> Most definitely she did get her horse/pony! If I remember correctly the one she got was the most horrid of beasts, but she somehow still learned from her until she passed or was sold for something easier (which I am sure she helped pay for as well).
> A business woman of sorts, yes. She is a stay/work at home mom. Her work part is a personally owned one woman photography business. And I mean GOOD quality. She most certainly has the eye and the talent.
> She also is the barn manager and trainer for the barn where I took lessons and bought (from her, no less, lol) my horse. My mare would most definitely still be there at their wonderfully run facility if we lived in that state and still needed to board.
> And I should add, I think she made that boarding barn from nothing. She saw a raw property of an old slave plantation and approached the owner to pitch her idea/make something tiny better. It has turned into a lovely 20+ horse facility, pastures galore, lessons, kids horse camps type of facility nestled in a little southern military town.


Thanks for filling us in on the rest of the story!

That gal had a great mother!


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

mrs whodunit said:


> Thanks for filling us in on the rest of the story!
> 
> That gal had a great mother!


You are welcome. Something like that, huh?  
She is definitely a wonderfully intense person.


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

> With a gestation period of 19-21 days, an average of 6-8 babies per litter and 5-10 litters per year, mice are prolific breeders. Who will be setting up a mice farm?


I have 3 of the mice trying to live in my kitchen walls now living in a rubbermaid container. I haven't decided what I want to do with them. I'm just collecting the ones that get caught live. Most fell in to the bathtub above the kitchen, maybe looking for water, and couldn't get out.


----------



## dozedotz (Dec 12, 2012)

We raised white rats in our basement to feed a constrictor snake that our oldest son had from age 7 to age 13 when he lost interest and we gave the snake to a person who raised them. Anyway, none of our younger kids let a bunch of the rats out of their confinement!! It was fun!! NO!!


----------



## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

To make the mice go farther, I often put a bunch of them in a jar until they get nice and squishy and then smear some of the juice down a hole with a coyote trap hidden in front. Then, after removing the fur, the chickens completely devour the coyote. Goes much farther than the original mouse input. Protein source plus predator elimination. Win/Win. Chickens that are fed a diet of coyote taste much better than coyote, too. I realize I'm a little more of a hardcore poultry enthusiast than some, but I just wanted to make you feel better about your chickens eating an occasional mouse.


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

barnbilder said:


> To make the mice go farther, I often put a bunch of them in a jar until they get nice and squishy and then smear some of the juice down a hole with a coyote trap hidden in front. Then, after removing the fur, the chickens completely devour the coyote. Goes much farther than the original mouse input. Protein source plus predator elimination. Win/Win. Chickens that are fed a diet of coyote taste much better than coyote, too. I realize I'm a little more of a hardcore poultry enthusiast than some, but I just wanted to make you feel better about your chickens eating an occasional mouse.


Okay, you win. We all bow before you.  THAT is an awesome method. Rather grotesque, but awesome. How long does it take how many chickens to finish one coyote?


----------



## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Well, you have to flip it so they can get to both sides, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 birds will reduce a coyote to a skeleton in about three weeks. Provided it stays cold enough that you can stand it to be around, but not frozen. Average raccoon will last a flock of forty maybe ten days. This is for adult chickens that know what they are doing. On a skinned Muskrat a flock of 40 will leave the skeleton minus the skull in about two days. They will charge past free choice grain and laying pellets to get to the carcass pile. Feed consumption is drastically reduced and they seem to thrive. I would not recommend taking a nap out behind my barn, you will be eaten. I've been doing it that way for years, used to just feed ravens and buzzards all the surplus varmints. I usually don't let them eat it all the way down, so clean-up is easier. 

If you think that a chicken is not designed for meat protein, there is a wild red jungle fowl somewhere in a jungle busy scavenging a tiger kill who would disagree with you. And that is my secret to such orange egg yolks.


Listed in order of chicken preference, based on observation: Beaver, muskrat, bobcat, raccoon, skunk, opossum, grey fox, red fox, coyote. They will barely eat anything in the weasel family besides skunks. Groundhogs would probably fall in somewhere around bobcat. Shot up deer ribcage ranks pretty highly, as well.


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

barnbilder said:


> Well, you have to flip it so they can get to both sides, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 birds will reduce a coyote to a skeleton in about three weeks. Provided it stays cold enough that you can stand it to be around, but not frozen. Average raccoon will last a flock of forty maybe ten days. This is for adult chickens that know what they are doing. On a skinned Muskrat a flock of 40 will leave the skeleton minus the skull in about two days. They will charge past free choice grain and laying pellets to get to the carcass pile. Feed consumption is drastically reduced and they seem to thrive. I would not recommend taking a nap out behind my barn, you will be eaten. I've been doing it that way for years, used to just feed ravens and buzzards all the surplus varmints. I usually don't let them eat it all the way down, so clean-up is easier.
> 
> If you think that a chicken is not designed for meat protein, there is a wild red jungle fowl somewhere in a jungle busy scavenging a tiger kill who would disagree with you. And that is my secret to such orange egg yolks.
> 
> Listed in order of chicken preference, based on observation: Beaver, muskrat, bobcat, raccoon, skunk, opossum, grey fox, red fox, coyote. They will barely eat anything in the weasel family besides skunks. Groundhogs would probably fall in somewhere around bobcat. Shot up deer ribcage ranks pretty highly, as well.


Quite informative!! 
I too agree that they are meant to eat meat. I hate that you can't find a commercial chicken feed that employs animal protein, not even insect!! But yet I recently read in a horse magazine that they want to use mealworm meal as a protein source in horse feed... I cannot fathom how that got put backwards like that!!! 
I still toss them just dispatched rodents in hopes they will eat them. Maybe I need to chop the itty bitty carcasses up a bit, then they can fight over them? They did pick at a busted open several days dead snake.I would love the source of meat! I give them any meat and bone scraps that don't go to the dogs or cats, including chicken carcasses. 
I have also given some roadkilled deer bones the dogs brought home in an effort to strip some of the meat, as one dog would gorge and make himself sick all over our floor. They picked those pretty clean for me.  

Very cool you have tapped that source of food for them! And even funnier that the majority of the animals on your list would love to make dinner out of your chickens! You quite turned those tables, huh?


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

All chicken feed I've seen has animal sources in it somewhere. I prefer to use gamebird feed because it has more animal protein and of higher quality than chicken feed. Some go as high as 20-22%. Then you just have to put out oyster shell for the laying hens. My chicks grow and feather so much faster on gamebird feed.


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

akane said:


> All chicken feed I've seen has animal sources in it somewhere. I prefer to use gamebird feed because it has more animal protein and of higher quality than chicken feed. Some go as high as 20-22%. Then you just have to put out oyster shell for the laying hens. My chicks grow and feather so much faster on gamebird feed.


Really?! I wish! All the commercial feed over this way is labeled as 100% vegetarian, no animal products... i.e. it is likely 99% soy, lol.
I buy our feed from a small local family who buys different seeds and vitamin stuff in bulk and then mixes it for the specific species. It is a couple of dollars cheaper as well, and supports small and local.  But if I found even a commercial source of animal/insect based at a good price, I would consider changing. 
I have thought about buying the family's game bird version for the protein, but haven't done it yet...


----------



## SouthGAMan (May 5, 2014)

gracielagata said:


> Really?! I wish! All the commercial feed over this way is labeled as 100% vegetarian, no animal products... i.e. it is likely 99% soy, lol.
> I buy our feed from a small local family who buys different seeds and vitamin stuff in bulk and then mixes it for the specific species. It is a couple of dollars cheaper as well, and supports small and local.  But if I found even a commercial source of animal/insect based at a good price, I would consider changing.
> I have thought about buying the family's game bird version for the protein, but haven't done it yet...


Seriously? I don't think I have ever noticed 100% vegetarian commercial feed. Chickens are omnivores not strictly herbivores. Seems like they'd include some animal products in their feed (of course I don't want chickens eating chickens).


----------



## Poultryguy (Jan 29, 2014)

SouthGAMan said:


> Seriously? I don't think I have ever noticed 100% vegetarian commercial feed. Chickens are omnivores not strictly herbivores. Seems like they'd include some animal products in their feed (of course *I don't want chickens eating chickens*).


And I wonder if that will eventually lead to "mad chicken disease", lol.


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

SouthGAMan said:


> Seriously? I don't think I have ever noticed 100% vegetarian commercial feed. Chickens are omnivores not strictly herbivores. Seems like they'd include some animal products in their feed (of course I don't want chickens eating chickens).


Yep, all of the commercial feeds around here put in big bold happy for us print on the bags that they are 100% vegetarian sourced. And 99% of that vegetarian sourcing is soy and wheat middlings. And maybe nothing is wrong with that, but a little variety would be good.
The stuff I buy is actual seeds.

I used to be anti-chicken fed to chickens... they get scraps of everything, which included leftover chicken parts I cooked down for stocks. 
I know in captivity, even in large pens, they will eat their dead or wounded without impunity. lol Wonder if they would do that in the wild?



Poultryguy said:


> And I wonder if that will eventually lead to "mad chicken disease", lol.


Does make ya wonder, huh?!


----------



## dozedotz (Dec 12, 2012)

What about armadillo? Our varmint dogs kill them all the time and just leave them lying around. We have an abundance apparently. They also kill the occasional squirrel which they consume...just one coyote this year...but armadillo ALL THE TIME. Can the chickens get past the armor or would we have to chop it up? Yuk.


----------



## SouthGAMan (May 5, 2014)

Our farm pond the last couple of years has been slightly overpopulated with bass. We don't fish it like we should but have started giving the chickens any small bass under 9 inches we catch to the chickens (normally not more than 4 or 5 a month). The chickens go crazy over them and towards the end of this past summer (haven't really fished this fall) it appeared the average size of the bass was definitely improving.


----------



## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Some of my chickens like mice, some could care less. I let them eat what they want. So far, so good.


----------



## froebeli (Feb 14, 2012)

I feed mice I trap, dead baby rabbits (which they don't seem to care for) but in the fall they get the rib/carcass from deer. They will pick it clean! Great timing also, since the chickens are molting and need more protein anyhow.


----------



## SouthGAMan (May 5, 2014)

froebeli said:


> I feed mice I trap, dead baby rabbits (which they don't seem to care for) but in the fall they get the rib/carcass from deer. They will pick it clean! Great timing also, since the chickens are molting and need more protein anyhow.



The dogs will devour dead baby rabbits in mere seconds here if I toss them out. My property is also fairly close to a country road where some people carelessly dispose of deer carcasses. My dogs eat well during deer season and thankfully they haven't pulled up too many bones into my yard this year.


----------



## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

My chickens ranged on 80 acres of various terrain and they would still attack any wounded. It might take weeks or a month or 2 to do serious damage instead of days like in a smaller area but they would still kill their own if we didn't intervene.


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

akane said:


> My chickens ranged on 80 acres of various terrain and they would still attack any wounded. It might take weeks or a month or 2 to do serious damage instead of days like in a smaller area but they would still kill their own if we didn't intervene.


This makes me feel so much better!! Ours have plenty of space, but still occasionally peck each other and whatnot... But 80 acres and still gonna eat their wounded, must be in the DNA!!! They know good food sources when they see/peck/eat it. lol I am sure a lot of it also has to do with flock protection.


----------



## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Stuff like this going on is why I call my chickens ground vultures.


----------



## gracielagata (Jun 24, 2013)

Ziptie said:


> Stuff like this going on is why I call my chickens ground vultures.


No kidding. I am always concentrating on not tripping on the ground vultures when I go in to feed them.... But I think it is hilarious when one breaks my concentration by doing the flying leaps to get things out of my hands when I don't pay attention or feed quickly enough.


----------



## gila_dog (Jun 17, 2011)

Well, I am totally relieved about feeding mice to my chickens. Some really great stories here! I particularly liked the one about using mice as coyote bait, then feeding the coyotes to the chickens. It sounds like chickens are just about the perfect mechanism for converting all kinds of otherwise wretched stuff into excellent food for humans.


----------



## Truckinguy (Mar 8, 2008)

froebeli said:


> I feed mice I trap, dead baby rabbits (which they don't seem to care for) but in the fall they get the rib/carcass from deer. They will pick it clean! Great timing also, since the chickens are molting and need more protein anyhow.


Mine don't seem to be interested in dead baby rabbits either but they go crazy for dead mice out of the trap. I"m not sure why as the baby rabbits are similar in size to the mice. If I get any more dead baby rabbits I might try slicing them so their insides are exposed. Chickens seem to be very attracted by blood.

I scramble any extra or very dirty eggs I get and feed them back to the chickens. Boy, talk about getting mobbed! I use the same old cracked Corningware bowl to bring the eggs out to them and as soon as they see me coming they mob the gate and I have to fight my way through just to put the bowl down.


----------



## Sanza (Sep 8, 2008)

I had so many good laughs reading this thread! 
I think it's one of the highlights of the day watching the chickens especially the chicks, run around with food in their mouth and being chased by others. Their plaintive cries omg! And broilers are the most aggressive meat eaters of them all, sometimes I wonder if the blood is from the poor mouse, or if it's their own blood from the others pecks.


----------



## CAjerseychick (Aug 11, 2013)

Hmmm I have never seen my crew eat a mouse, although there are plenty dead ones around left from the cats (is that the difference the mouse has to be chased down and caught before being attractive to the hens?)- wouldnt mind though as they are just field mice, and the birds eat whatever is out in the pasture anyway...


----------



## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

About the only thing I've found that chickens absolutely will not eat is onions. Anything else is fair game.

A word of caution, though -- be sure that if you've got very young peeps you do feed them a high quality food from a reputable company. I lost a few hundred rare breed peeps once because the feed was lacking vitamin E. The mill forgot to mix it in. The symptoms were very similar to avian flu, and the state actually paid for some necropsies and testing on the feed to figure out what happened. 

I'm _really _picky now about what I feed peeps. Older chickens can survive on a pretty sketchy diet, but the babies will die if they don't get the right nutrients.


----------



## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

Cygnet said:


> .......
> 
> A word of caution, though -- be sure that if you've got very young peeps you do feed them a high quality food from a reputable company. I lost a few hundred rare breed peeps once because the feed was lacking vitamin E. The mill forgot to mix it in. The symptoms were very similar to avian flu, and the state actually paid for some necropsies and testing on the feed to figure out what happened.
> 
> I'm _really _picky now about what I feed peeps. Older chickens can survive on a pretty sketchy diet, but the babies will die if they don't get the right nutrients.


Might want to post this in the H5N2 thread


----------

