Grower finisher chicken feed is specially tailored to promote fast growth of broilers. It enables them to reach their market weight faster while building muscle.
Your chickens need plenty of protein and vitamins to grow up strong and healthy. Plus, this feed will help them produce more meat!
Contents
Protein
Grower finisher chicken feed typically contains 16-18% protein content and should be fed to broiler chickens until their final stages of growth have been reached.
At this stage, chickens must quickly gain weight to reach their market weight quickly and reduce overall costs of raising them.
As soon as a broiler begins to grow, they require a high-protein diet to aid them in producing meat and achieving health. However, it is essential that this diet be tailored according to weather and seasonal changes for maximum effectiveness.
Calcium
Chicks require calcium for strong egg shells; however, high-calcium diets may damage kidneys and cause them to produce less eggs as they mature.
At 6 to 20 weeks of age, chicks should transition to grower feed specifically tailored to their nutritional requirements – which typically has less protein (16-18%) and calcium than starter food.
Layer hens should be introduced to layer feed around 20 weeks of age or when they start laying eggs, as this food typically contains 18 percent protein and provides ample calcium for their egg shells.
Oyster shell provides more calcium than most other poultry feed, providing an effective supplementation option to producers whose hens struggle to produce eggs with thin shells. Oyster shell offers free-choice supplementation.
Vitamins
A quality finisher feed will contain essential vitamins and minerals for your broilers to reach their maximum performance and remain healthy before slaughtering them. Some may come as vitamin pre-mix, while other can be found in their diet ingredients in various amounts.
One effective method of providing these nutrients to poultry is through feeding a mix of hay and grain containing alfalfa as its star ingredient; other sources include molasses, fish oil and yeast as vitamin sources. For an all-around approach consider offering whole grains mixed with vegetables – even including some fruits! For best results it’s also important to provide plenty of water, which will ensure strong digestive tract health before cutting – ultimately producing high quality meat for the end user!
Minerals
Grower finisher chicken feed contains essential minerals that support your birds’ development, helping them reach their maximum size more quickly and prepare for processing more easily.
Poultry diets provide essential minerals from various sources, including fish meal and kelp (seaweed), as well as meat and bone meal. Furthermore, poultry diets also contain trace mineralized salts with calcium, phosphorus and magnesium content to complete their nutrition requirements.
If you raise chickens on pasture, there may not be a need to add many minerals to their diet – they’ll get plenty of essential minerals from plants and insects they eat anyway!
However, if you raise your chicks using commercial feed, they will require supplementing their diet with grower finisher chicken feed until they reach an age specified by their feed manufacturer for either layer or broiler feed. This may take between one to four months.
