What to feed the guinea fowl
Today, often in private farmsteads you can find not only the chickens and geese that are familiar to us, but also guinea fowls. These birds are distinguished by a kind, curious character and attractive appearance. Refers to meat and egg orientation. Many people who decide to acquire such birds are wondering what to feed the guinea fowl.
How to feed guinea fowl at home
Food
Food for guinea fowls in the wild is very diverse. In the spring, the basis of the diet is protein food: beetles and worms. Later, with the appearance of greenery, the diet is expanded with berries and all kinds of vegetation, supplemented by small mice and lizards. How to feed guinea fowl at home, every novice poultry breeder should know.
Feeding guinea fowls at home is mainly done with grain mixtures. Many farmers feed guinea fowl in the same way as chicken. Feeding guinea fowls in March looks like this:
- oats - 20 g;
- barley seed - 20 g;
- crushed corn kernels - 20 g;
- wheat cake - 20 g;
- fish or meat and bone dust - 5 g;
- root vegetables - 20 g;
- dried herb - 25 g;
- needles - 15 g;
- yeast and fish oil - 3 g each;
- salt - 0.3 g
Successful maintenance depends on how comfortable the conditions are for the breeder. Feeding adult guinea fowls should also be as close to natural as possible. In the wild, the bird eats a large amount of greenery, so at home they are injected with needles, root crops and hay from clover. The body of the guinea fowl needs a sufficient amount of carotene, which is also obtained from pine needles at home in winter. Care and feeding of guinea fowls during puberty, and, accordingly, the beginning of egg-laying will need to be diversified and enriched with minerals. How much food to feed also depends on the season.
During the onset of active egg-laying, feed for guinea fowls is enriched with calcium. Chalk, fish dust, green food are introduced. In April-May, the total amount of feed per individual increases by 30 g. The feeding regime for guinea fowls is three times a day. In the morning and at lunchtime, it is preferable to make wet mash, and in the evening to give grain crops.
At the end of each month, flocks are weighed to allow feed adjustments to control obesity. Birds need protein, and in order to kill 2 birds with one stone, they are used to combat garden pests. Guinea fowls are happy to eat the Colorado potato beetle, so if you do not know where to put the pests, you can safely launch guinea fowls into the garden. At home, feeding adult guinea fowls implies a gradual decrease in the amount of feed in the winter and an increase before the start of laying. On average, about 36 kg of grain feed is needed to feed one guinea fowl per year.
Nutrition of offspring
When raising birds, a natural question arises, how to feed the guinea fowls in the first days of life. Day-old chickens are fed with chopped hard-boiled chicken eggs and bread soaked in milk.Guinea fowl chicks are fed three times a day. If the poultry house is located near the grazing area, it will not be difficult for the princes to get themselves green food on their own, otherwise they will have to get greens for them.
At the age from 1 day to 4 months, the diet of the guinea fowl includes:
- wheat cake;
- ground corn;
- peeled oat flour;
- Wheat flour;
- millet seed;
- barley flour;
- fish dust.
Composition of wet mash: boiled egg, sour milk, lettuce, clover hay, yeast.
Feeding food
Four-month-old chicks are fed with flour dough and steamed roots. Provide them free range on the pasture. Some breeders argue that there is no need to feed guinea fowls on purpose, because by 4 months, with appropriate maintenance and feeding, they already have sufficient muscle mass and are ready for slaughter.
Nutrition in the first days of life
In general, raising and feeding small chickens in the first days of life is identical to caring for the guinea fowls. The body of day-old chicks requires more crude proteins, about 24%, so their diet in the first days is enriched with cottage cheese, sour milk and boiled cereals. The older the birds get, the less crude protein they need. Compared to small chickens, guinea fowls need much more green fodder. In the diet of birds, chalk, crushed shellfish must be present. To replenish calcium, you need to give crushed eggshells that have undergone preliminary heat treatment.
Nutrition and disease
A properly composed diet is the key to good immunity, so the answer to the question of how to feed any guinea fowl is as follows: by introducing exceptionally balanced feed. The body resistance of guinea fowls is quite high, however, they are often subject to diseases associated with an excess or lack of protein in the diet.
For all the simplicity in food, guinea fowls do not like fishmeal and barley, but these products must be given without fail so that the birds receive adequate nutrition. Gastrointestinal diseases in poultry are caused by excessive moisture and hypothermia. During the mating season, birds should be given wet mash with the addition of yeast and a manganese solution as a drink.
Guinea fowls and their nutritional needs
Guinea fowl eats a variety of foods in the wild. When bred in captivity, she is not particularly picky in nutrition and maintenance. The metabolic processes in these birds are much faster than in other birds. The king bird is happy to eat crushed corn with wheat cake. River sand, crushed shells should be poured into separate boxes. The garden plots are full of insects in the summer. Guinea fowls eat the Colorado potato beetle with pleasure, and do not damage the potato tops and do not break the beds. Even frogs or field mice can become prey of birds. In late summer - early autumn, you can feed the guinea fowl with melons and gourds. Such a dessert will have a feathered taste.
In winter, clover needles and hay are introduced into the diet. How to feed day-old guinea fowl chicks? The same as small chickens. On the first day, after drying, the chicks feed on a hard-boiled crushed egg. Also, sour milk and cottage cheese are introduced into the diet, then lettuce greens are gradually added and all sorts of important mashings are made, over time they are transferred to compound feed for broiler chickens.
From 4 months, free-range feeding begins with dough. The dough is made from peeled oatmeal or wheat flour and boiled vegetables. To control the fat content of the offspring, the livestock is weighed every month. For chickens to run well and produce good quality chickens, there must be enough calcium in the diet. It is advisable to introduce such products as boiled, chopped eggshells, chalk, meat and bone meal.
Final part
Now you know how to feed young guinea fowls.Proper balanced nutrition is the key to good health of the birds. Lack or excess of protein can cause illness. With an excess of protein, feather loss, peeling of the skin is observed.
Dampness and cold can provoke digestive problems in birds, therefore, to maintain immunity, they are given moist mash with the addition of yeast. In general, feeding guinea fowls is not difficult.