Making homemade chicken grit is easy, now that you know what is in chicken grit. This is usually enough, but you can provide a supplemental serving of flint or oyster grit, if desired. Many backyard chicken owners will spread a fine layer of sand on the floor of the coop for the chickens to peck. However, if you want to provide a mixture of grit and sand, that will work. The only problem is that sand granules may be smaller than commercial grit and, therefore, not as optimal. Sand is gritty and hard enough to assist with digestion in the gizzard. Sand can be a substitute for insoluble flint grit. A lot of starter feed contains a small amount of grit in it. If you are giving your chicks commercial starter food, they may not need additional grit. As mentioned earlier, grit also stimulates the development of a gizzard, which you definitely want for your growing chickens. This kind of grit is smaller than regular grit-an appropriate size for babies. You should be able to find “baby grit” or “chick grit” at the local feed store or online. Ideally, you want to start giving grit to your chicks around the time they begin eating their chick starter food, which happens around 2 weeks old. The sooner you introduce grit to your baby chicks, the healthier they will be. If you notice a chicken pecking at its own eggshells, this is a sure sign that your chickens need more grit. Bugs and worms do not meet their calcium needs for egg-laying. During the summer, increase the amount of soluble grit to prevent thin-shelled eggs.įree-range chickens may also need more soluble grit. When Do I Feed My Chickens Grit?Ĭhickens need grit more often in the summer, when they eat less and take in less calcium. You don’t have to worry about chickens overeating grit, since they pick it up based on instinctive need.Īll you have to do is provide grit in either a feeder or scatter it around once in a while. It doesn’t matter how you choose to give chickens grit. Chickens with rotten food in their gizzard develop a dangerous condition called “ sour crop.” Another possible health condition is digestive tract obstruction.īoth issues require immediate veterinary care and possible surgery. Instead, it will sit and sit and sit in the gizzard until the food begins to rot. Without grit, that hardened wad of food won’t be digested. Since the food that chickens consume becomes a rock in their bellies, they need grit to break it down. Here is a video that explains in practice the need for grit for chickens: What Happens When Chickens Don’t Have Grit? Most formulated chicken feed will have enough calcium, but supplementing with soluble grit is always a good idea. Oyster Shell Grit for CalciumĪnother kind of grit that you should provide for your egg-producing hens is called soluble grit, often sold as oyster shell grit.Įgg-laying hens need a calcium-rich diet in order to produce quality eggs. However, it’s always a nice gesture to scatter around some grit for your chickens, since they will only take as much as they instinctively need and leave the rest for later. In stores, you will see insoluble grit often called “flint grit.” This could contain granite, flint, or even washed rose quartz.įree-range chickens do the same thing, and they generally don’t need any additional grit. This comes in the form of tiny stones and shells, all things that are insoluble. In the wild, chickens forage for food and grit. You now know that the gizzard uses grit to grind up food. The two types of grit also have different properties: Insoluble Grit for Digestion There are two kinds of grit that chickens seek out: grit for digestion and for egg production. Grit is needed in unlimited supply, because the stores in the gizzard are eventually depleted. Grit remains stored in the gizzard then is moved along with the other food and digested for nutritional content. Otherwise, the muscles aren’t strong enough to break down food. The gizzard is a powerful organ that crushes up food into smaller particles, but only if the chicken has consumed grit. As the food moves from the crop to the stomach, it first passes through the gizzard. Instead, the feed they pluck from the ground mixes with saliva and becomes a hardened stone.
The GizzardĪs mentioned earlier, chickens don’t have teeth, so they can’t masticate-chew-up their food like humans. Once the crop has been filled, some of the food moves onward to the gizzard. Since chickens are a prey species, they evolved to have extra food stored in their bodies for energy. Chickens have a unique organ in the front of their chest called the crop, which functions much like the stretchy cheeks of a hamster.
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