Whoops! Medicated chick feed.

[didgery]

I picked up a bag of chick starter feed today and didn’t notice until I arrived home that they’d given me the medicated variety. I’m bummed! I really don’t want to go back to the feedstore, but I do prefer to feed natural products when possible—organic, usually.

We’re getting 44 chicks and three ducklings, and all the poultry forums I’ve checked with say that the active ingredient, Amprolium, is safe for both types of fowl (though some other feed-through medications are bad for ducklings). I’m tempted to just go ahead and feed this for the first few weeks and then switch to something else. The chicks are not going to be vaccinated and I do have a free-range flock of old layers about the place, so I suppose coccidia exposure IS a possibility.

Thoughts?

[Bluey]

Amprolium, Corid, is used to keep coccidiosis at bay.

You may not have a problem with coccidiosis, but if you do, you will be glad you had that in their feed and may never know you did have a problem.:yes:

You have to read labels to be sure you are getting what you want, so mistakes won’t happen.

[concreteblond]

Unless you are sure that you aren’t going to cross contaminate, I would go ahead and feed it for until it is gone. It can help prevent a tragedy and keep those lil ones safe. I only do the medicated for a few weeks as well. I have yet to lose any to coccidia and I have some free range chicks and ducks as well as wild birds flying in as well. I can’t prevent contamination from one group of birds to another!

Good luck!

[Bacardi1]

If you’re not going to vaccinate your new birds & they’ll be not only free-range but mixing with an existing flock, I’d definitely feed the medicated starter. It’ll give them a good beginning towards developing a healthy immune system, & the medication will be long long gone by the time you’re consuming the eggs.

[Bluey]

I think that even in the most strict “organic”, “natural” or such programs, vaccinating, deworming and products like amprolium are permitted, just common sense that would be so.
If those were not permitted, that would be considered inhumane practices and fall under neglect and too many animals would be lost to problems those protect from.

What those programs require is that, where there is some other management, to address those problems, that they approve, other than commercial products, that those, not commercial ones be used.

[Megaladon]

Feed the Medicated feed. Medicated feed allows them to build resistance to coccidia. Coccidia is serious business and not to be taken lightly. I had a major learning experience by buying off an individual whose birds were infected. I cannot believe I got them through that but they were so sad and their skin was white they were so sick. Good luck and enjoy your chickies.

[didgery]

Thanks for all the advice—I guess this was a good mistake. I will go ahead and feed the medicated feed until it’s gone.

I do deworm my livestock and medicate them in other ways, so I suppose a feed-through coccidiostat isn’t a bad thing.