How to feed guinea fowl at home for rapid growth for beginners

Guinea fowl can be called relatives of chickens, quails and turkeys, so we can assume that their diet is similar. In general terms, this is true, but there are differences. Consider what you can feed guinea fowl, young and adults, in the household. What and how much to give to birds in winter, to females during the egg-laying period, foods prohibited for guinea fowl.

What food can I give?

As with all birds, the basis of the diet of guinea fowls is grain, whole or chopped. Grass, garden tops, boiled potatoes, grated root crops and vegetables are added to the mash to the grain. Chalk, crushed shells can serve as a source of calcium for guinea fowls.

Unlike the same chickens, guinea fowls are happy to eat harmful insects, such as Colorado potato beetles, which can be collected and fed to birds or released into the garden. Feeding guinea fowl can be even easier - give them special bird feed. In this case, all that is required, apart from compound feed, is clean fresh water.

Guinea fowl feeding rules at home for beginners

To feed young and adults correctly, you need to know the general rules and some features of feeding guinea fowl. Consider what and how to feed the cesareans and adult birds.

Feeding young animals

From the first days, cesareans should receive easily digestible food until their digestive system is tuned to the digestion of hard grains. Daily give a mixture of finely chopped boiled eggs, low-fat, not sour cottage cheese and green grass. On the first day after hatching, they can eat little, they can lie under the lamp, basking under it.

After 2-3 days, you can give the chicks starter feed for chickens, the granules should be small so that the birds do not choke. Instead of compound feed, you can feed the cesareans with grain and herbal mixtures. In composition, they are slightly different from those intended for chickens - they should have more protein and less fiber. From grain, you can use millet, crushed corn, wheat. For rapid growth, sour-milk products (skip, cottage cheese, sour milk) are added to the mixture, which guinea fowl eat with pleasure.

Grated vitamin vegetables, root crops should be added to the food of little cesareans. The consistency of the mixture should not be dry, but not sticky, so as not to get stuck in the throat of birds. Monthly chicks can be given boiled potatoes, transfer them to whole grains.At this time, meat and bone meal, bran, onion feathers, quinoa, a little alfalfa are added to the mixture.

There should not be a lot of greenery in the feed, the cesareans first of all choose it, eat up and then do not want to peck at the grain. Because of this, the chicks are not growing as fast as we would like.

Caesarites are gluttonous, they usually eat everything they have been given. But if food remains in the feeders, after the chicks have eaten, you need to clean them of residues and rinse the feeders so that the pieces of food do not rot.

From 1.5 weeks of age, young guinea fowls can be let out for a walk, outside, in a closed corral. On free pasture they can find insects, worms, larvae. This is a nutritious protein food that enhances the growth of young birds.

Food for adults

Adult guinea fowls are fed at least, but not more than 3 times a day. In the morning they give a wet mash, in the afternoon - a mash and grass, in the evening - whole grains.The mixer is prepared from crushed grain, grated or finely chopped root crops, vegetables. Chalk, s alt, ready-made industrial premixes are added to it. To normalize digestion, guinea fowl are given fine gravel.

A day, each guinea fowl can consume 100-130 g of grain and vegetable feed and 50-70 g of greens. Adult birds, if possible, can be left on pasture for the whole day. Being on the street, they can fully provide themselves with the necessary food. They find grains, insects, larvae, worms, slugs, pluck grass.

If you release guinea fowls into the garden, they can collect Colorado beetles from potato beds, you don’t have to treat the garden with chemicals. It is necessary to accustom birds to such food from an early age, collecting beetles and mixing them into food.

After grazing, you can feed the birds only in the evening, when they enter the house for the night. Another way of feeding is with ready-made bird feed. Each day can eat 90-95 g of granules. Feeding with compound feed will be cost-effective if you purchase high-quality mixtures. Birds grow slowly on poor quality compound feed, they can get poisoned.

Eating grain, dry feed, guinea fowl are thirsty. Water must be poured into the drinkers so that it is constantly in them. At least once a day, you need to change it, rinse the drinkers so that sediment and mucus do not form on the walls.

During the molting period, foods containing protein and trace elements are added to the diet (grain and grass of leguminous plants, cabbage leaves as a source of sulfur). Protein and mineral components are necessary for the guinea fowl to form new feathers faster.

Features of the winter diet

You can't find fresh grass in winter, so to feed the livestock you need to prepare hay in the summer and grind it into flour.Add grass crumbs to the mixers. In winter, the need for nutrients and energy in guinea fowl increases, so you need to feed it with boiled potatoes, leftovers from the table, give dry bread crumbs, ground needles. It is recommended to harvest products from autumn, store in the cellar.

The basis of keeping guinea fowls in winter is feeding with the same grain and vegetable mixtures. To them, birds should always have chalk or shell rock and gravel in a separate bowl. Water, as in summer, should be in the drinkers all the time if the house is insulated and the temperature in it does not drop below zero. If freezing is possible, then you need to pour warm water and pour it out as soon as the birds are drunk.

Subtleties of feeding during egg production

Egg production in female guinea fowl begins at 6 months of age. For the formation of eggs, the body of birds needs additional nutrients.In the diet of livestock should be a sufficient amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins. At this time, guinea fowls experience an increased need for calcium, which is needed for shell formation. To do this, chalk is added to the feed. A good source of micronutrients can be commercially available premixes for layers.

What can not be fed?

You can not feed moldy grain, rotten or frozen vegetables, greens, tops. All damaged areas must be cut out, washed and dried, root crops and tubers, if they are dirty. You can not use compound feed, the expiration date of which has passed. Do not give fresh bread, fatty foods, s alty, smoked, spicy, sweet.

Feeding guinea fowl is similar to feeding chickens and turkeys. Birds eat mainly grains, vegetables and grass, and love insects. In any household there are products that can feed livestock throughout the year.