Mash onto pellets.

[DJ_Chook]

How to I wean my girls off mash and onto pellets?

6 ex batts, with me for 4 months now. I won't bore you with the long drawn out story of how I've spent the last month slowly weaning them off yummy warm mash onto boring cold pellets.

Now it's day 5 of only pellets being available to them. I let them out at 6am, they race to the 3 feeding stations, see it's pellets and ignore them. I put a small amount of fresh pellets in these daily. By mid morning starvation hasn't made them eat the pellets. They are all with empty crops. I let them out to free range about 10am. By mid afternoon they have tiny crops. Yesterday, they had to be in their run all day. They had empty crops all day. I gave them half a mug of mixed grain a couple of hours before bedtime. They gobbled it all up.

Over the month of weaning. I've noticed a severe drop in eggs since I've stopped pampering them with mash and treats. From 6 a day down to 1-3 eggs a day with poor thin shells and a few softies.

So as it's day 5 of this.. should I give in and make their favourite mash mix of pellets, limestone flour, cod liver oil, poultry spice and mealworms?

How many days could this stand off last?

DJ Chook

[MaureenHall]

Make them a moist mash of the food they WILL eat and add some layers pellets to it. Gradually increase the pellets and reduce the mash till it's all pellets, then decrease the amount of water added to make it moist. It's a long process, but it should work.

I'm getting my next 5 ex-batts on Sunday and I'll be starting them off straight away with layers pellets (just as I've done with all my rescue girls) but it'll be as a moist mash with added poultry spice, garlic powder and crushed egg shells

[DJ_Chook]

For a month I've been mixing pellets with the mash, slowly increasing the pellets, decreasing the mash. So that they had minimal mash, mostly pellets. Now it's only pellets.

I'm going to end up cracking before them and giving in.

[Suechooks]

For a month I've been mixing pellets with the mash, slowly increasing the pellets, decreasing the mash. So that they had minimal mash, mostly pellets. Now it's only pellets.

I'm going to end up cracking before them and giving in.

Have every sympathy as I had exactly the same problem. (I've had mine 18 months!) I weaned them off as you have and they just didn't eat the pellets. This went on for over a week till I gave in! The crazy thing is they will eat the pellets later in the day as long as they've had their mash first thing! I decided to let them have their way and treat it as a lesson for the future! Any new ex-batts who come here will start on pellets as Maureen has suggested from the beginning.