Large breed chickens require high protein feed for optimal weight maintenance. Make sure their food is soaked as inhaling small particles may prevent them from receiving full nutrition benefits.
If your chicken is sick, try supplementing its regular layer feed with other items like cracked corn, high-fat seeds or cottage cheese; these supplements should never replace complete layer feed though.
Contents
Protein
A chicken’s diet must consist of high-quality dietary protein for growth and egg production. Digestible proteins must also contain essential vitamins and minerals essential to their wellbeing.
Chickens need protein-rich feed such as sorghum to thrive, boasting both high concentrations of lysine and an abundance of adenosine triphosphate content, carbohydrates and calcium. Rapeseed provides another great source of lysine-rich proteins with minimal fat content – however this type of feed should make up no more than 5-10% of their diets.
Supplement your chicken’s diet with chopped greens and small bits of fruits and vegetables such as apples, carrots, strawberries, and grapes. Grit can help the birds grind food in their gizzards for easier digestion; garlic may even provide antimicrobial benefits in their drinking water!
Carbohydrates
As chicks develop into chickens, they require a diet rich in proteins for healthy development and egg production. Without sufficient amounts, their bodies will use proteins stored within themselves to make up the difference, leading to weight loss as their tissues use up their stores of protein instead.
Solution: Provide the chickens with high-protein foods like cracked corn, whole wheat or soy. They must also have constant access to water; in cases of illness crushed garlic may be added as it has antibiotic properties that will support recovery.
Addition of fruits and vegetables can help increase a chicken’s energy levels. However, this should only be done as part of their regular feed and shouldn’t make up a substantial part of their diet. Keeping to a feeding schedule ensures they don’t overeat and develop unhealthy eating habits; additionally grit should always be readily available as this aids digestion of their food in their gizzards.
Fats
Chickens need plenty of energy to grow, reproduce and function optimally; this comes from their food source – usually protein and fats from plants. If a chicken appears underweight it could have parasites which are draining its diet of nutrients that it needs.
Worms can rob chickens of their ability to absorb and utilize nutrients. Furthermore, sick poultry may lose its appetite and not eat as frequently.
If a chicken is underweight, feeding higher rations of normal feed can help increase its weight by giving mash, pellets or crumbles with extra cracked corn and whole wheat as well as extra cracked corn can all help pack on more pounds. In order to achieve maximum weight gain it’s also vital that plenty of water be provided.
Calcium
Chickens require numerous nutrients in order to function normally and maintain appropriate weight, and any deficit in availability could lead to difficulty with gain weight. If any essential nutrient is absent or unavailable in sufficient amounts they could struggle to gain weight and thrive.
Underweight chickens are typically caused by illness. When sick, chickens’ focus shifts away from eating to healing themselves instead of maintaining proper nutrition levels and they become malnourished as a result.
As part of their recovery process, it’s crucial that a chicken receives high amounts of protein, carbs and calcium-rich foods like grower feed; supplement this diet with grit for additional calcium intake; scratch or cracked corn can also add carbohydrates to their diets.
Sick chickens should also receive probiotics like plain yogurt or kombucha scobys to restore healthy gut function during an illness. Crushed garlic also has antibiotic properties and should be added up to four cloves per gallon as a water additive.
