Sometimes owners, purchasing various types of poultry, believe that mixed feed for chickens is suitable for all of them. But this is not so, the bird needs nutrition that meets the needs of the body.
Compound feed for turkeys and chickens: is there a difference
It often happens that in a village or village, turkeys are bred only in one farm, and in all the others - exclusively laying hens. And for turkeys, they begin to use chicken compound feed, since the other is simply difficult to get. It seems that outwardly everything is fine, there is no mass mortality of poultry, but there is almost no sense from such feeding for turkeys. The reason is that the nutritional value of the chicken feed is not enough for them. They need more proteins and vitamins.
And if we are talking about young animals, then this difference in the physiological needs of turkeys and chickens is even more noticeable. As the chicks grow older, they should be switched to feed with a lower nutritional value, while increasing the dietary fiber and calcium in the diet. This is important to prepare juveniles to lay eggs. Transferring chickens to a new compound feed allows you to stop premature puberty, helps to gain weight and complete the formation of the skeleton. And crude fiber improves the activity of the gastrointestinal tract.
Young turkeys grow at a very fast pace, therefore, the choice of feed for them must be treated with special care: the viability of the bird, and the gain in weight, and the quality of meat depend on this. The easiest option is to purchase ready-made feed made at the plant for turkeys. But you can independently prepare a balanced feed, which is not inferior in nutritional value to the factory one, from the following components: corn, barley, wheat and oat crushed grain, sunflower meal, yeast. For protein fortification, you can add bone meal or cottage cheese. It is better to knead such a mixture in milk, feed at the rate of 30 g per individual.
Compound feed for ducks
If you compare chickens and ducks, you will notice that the latter in the chicken feed lacks calories and crude protein. In summer, such food can be used in their diet. They can compensate for the lack of nutrients through greens and root crops. But in winter, it will be necessary to add reverse, pea, bone and hay flour, starchy vegetables to the compound feed.
If you are using whole grains in your ducks, you need to germinate them. Such nutrition is very useful for them when they are preparing to have offspring. There is evidence that sprouted grains can help improve the quality of eggs.
It is important to know: when the bird is kept in a room where temperature changes are observed, the amount of feed should be increased by 20%.
