So, I have long wondered about how much grit and what size my chickens consume and how much is in their gizzard so when I butchered 8 young cockerels and 3 older ones I cut open their gizzard sacs to have a look. I feed whole oats and wheat so am always concerned about grit.
Unfortunately, my pics are kind of blurry so maybe not the best pics to see anything, but I was happy to discover that 7/8 of them had lots of small gravel (which I collect from ant hills) as well as some bigger, granite particles (# 2 size) which I bought from UFA recently.
I also bought #3 grit at the same time and have been putting it out for my ducks and mature roosters. I don't think I will ever buy the #2 again as it is not much smaller than the #3 and cost $6 more per bag. I think it was $13 for the #3 and $19 for the #2.
One of the cockerels did not have any visible gravel at all in his gizzard and lots of long grass/hay pieces. Unfortuately I didn't keep track of which gizzard belonged to whom as I cut them open when I was all done....
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kinda icky looking I know but you hopefully you can see lots of small rocks in there and some mostly ground up whole wheat. It didn't smell bad, just looks nasty in pics!
I kind of liked the way the bottom one shows the shape of the gizzard pouch even though it is way blurry I know!
This is the one that didn't have any grit in it at all, no idea why not? They all had equal access to grit.
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Heres a comparison pic of my 3 sizes of grit, the reddish mix color is from local ant hills, gleaned from the gravel grid road, then #3(bigger) on the left and #2 on the right.
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enjoy! (don't lose your lunch!
)
Unfortunately, my pics are kind of blurry so maybe not the best pics to see anything, but I was happy to discover that 7/8 of them had lots of small gravel (which I collect from ant hills) as well as some bigger, granite particles (# 2 size) which I bought from UFA recently.
I also bought #3 grit at the same time and have been putting it out for my ducks and mature roosters. I don't think I will ever buy the #2 again as it is not much smaller than the #3 and cost $6 more per bag. I think it was $13 for the #3 and $19 for the #2.
One of the cockerels did not have any visible gravel at all in his gizzard and lots of long grass/hay pieces. Unfortuately I didn't keep track of which gizzard belonged to whom as I cut them open when I was all done....
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
kinda icky looking I know but you hopefully you can see lots of small rocks in there and some mostly ground up whole wheat. It didn't smell bad, just looks nasty in pics!
I kind of liked the way the bottom one shows the shape of the gizzard pouch even though it is way blurry I know!
This is the one that didn't have any grit in it at all, no idea why not? They all had equal access to grit.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Heres a comparison pic of my 3 sizes of grit, the reddish mix color is from local ant hills, gleaned from the gravel grid road, then #3(bigger) on the left and #2 on the right.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
enjoy! (don't lose your lunch!
)
