![]() The food then travels down into the gizzard for grinding and further digestion at a later time. *The crop is the sack at the front of a bird’s chest where it stores feed as soon as it is eaten. They don’t actually need insoluble grit for digestion, but it still can be beneficial to aid gut movement. Birds fed a diet which consists entirely of mash, crumbs or pellets end up with a porridge-like mix in their digestive system once water and saliva are added. This grinding allows the nutrients to be worked on by digestive enzymes and absorbed into the bloodstream. Instead, they tumble around in the gizzard, a hard muscular pouch situated at the top of the intestine, to help grind up the fibres in vegetation and crack open the hard husks of grains and seeds that a bird may eat. These stones do not dissolve and do not provide calcium. It is comprised of things like small pea-sized gravel chips or small stones which birds pick up if they are allowed to fossick around outside. The second form of ‘grit’ is insoluble and stays in the bird’s gizzard*. These different forms of ‘grit’ are essential to eggshell formation. Forcing a bird to eat too much calcium (by mixing it into their feed) can be toxic. A commercial poultry feed will already include this type of grit in it, so eating more than that should be free choice to hens who need more. Soluble grit needs to be provided in a separate dish to a hen’s main diet. You can also make a DIY soluble grit out of and crushed eggshells. This is predominantly calcium-based and can be in the form of limestone (calcium carbonate), either as small chips or ground flour in commercial poultry feeds, or crushed oyster or mussel shells. There is soluble grit which is the sort that dissolves in the bird’s digestive system. The catch is that there are two types of grit, which two different jobs, and they really need both. Nature’s Best Organic Feeds offers Non-GMO Project Verified chicken feed designed to keep your flock happy and healthy.Just about anyone who keeps poultry, or intends to, knows that hens need ‘grit’ to make shells. Using non-medicated, organic feed in your fermentation process is a great option. You can use this to jump-start a new batch!Īre You Looking for Organic Chicken Feed?
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