Game Bird Feed: The Best Poultry Products for Your Flock

Raising chickens is a popular pastime, but numerous game birds are happy to live in your backyard—some of which are even easier than chickens to tend. If you choose to raise game birds like geese, turkeys, pheasant, or quail, providing the proper poultry feed is essential to their well-being.   

Feeding geese

Geese are hardy, surprisingly friendly toward their handlers, and suffer from minimal disease and ailments. They are also at less risk from predators than other backyard birds—a full-grown goose can fend off most small predators, including foxes. 

What do baby geese eat?

Goslings grow fast and require a starter food that contains between 18 and 20% protein. Their food should also have B3 (also called Niacin), as deficiencies in B3 can lead to leg and joint disorders. Brewer’s yeast for geese can also help prevent this deficiency.

Too much protein can cause health problems such as angel wing, so at two or three weeks old, move your goslings to a food that contains 14 to 15% protein. Your flock will stay on this lower-protein feed until about 20 weeks, or when they can forage. 

If you choose to feed your gosling chick feed, make sure it is unmedicated. Baby geese do not need the medication, and medicated chick feed can cause health issues in young geese. To help prevent a niacin deficiency in geese, add brewer’s yeast to their diet of chick feed.

What do geese eat?

Grass is the foundation of a goose’s diet. In general, geese require minimal supplementary food in the spring and summer when grass is abundant. When there is a lack of adequate pasture, you can fill the void with poultry feed or waterfowl feed.

Laying geese require more calories and calcium, and adding geese feed to their grass-based diet is beneficial. Geese laying eggs also profit from the addition of oyster shells to their diet, as they’re a rich source of calcium. No matter what type of feed you choose, serve it in pellet form—geese have difficulty swallowing crumbles. 

Lastly, geese do not have teeth and need grit to break down their food; provide free access to it to avoid digestive issues. 

Turkeys

Whether you’re raising them for meat, eggs, their distinct personalities, or extra fertilizer for your garden, turkeys are a great backyard bird. One thing to know about big birds like turkeys, though, is that they eat a lot. 

What do turkeys eat?

Turkeys thrive when their diet is matched to the turkey growth stages. Turkey poults grow quickly. During the first six weeks, their development is best fueled by a diet of turkey starter feed containing up to 30% protein. Medicated food is a popular option for poults and helps prevent coccidiosis, an intestinal tract disease. After six weeks, turkeys can switch to a grower feed between 20 and 22% protein until they’re 12 to 16 weeks old.

In general, adult turkeys subsist on a diet of turkey feed containing up to 20% protein. However, turkeys have different nutritional needs depending on their use. For example, hens need extra calcium during laying season to produce eggs with strong shells, while extra protein helps fatten turkeys raised for meat. 

Both toms and hens require grit, especially if they can’t forage. Turkeys don’t have teeth, and grit is essential for digestion—provide free access to it, and turkeys will take what they need.  

Pheasant and quail

Pheasant and quail are gaining in popularity among novice chicken and poultry parents. While they are in the same bird family, pheasants and quails differ in many ways. Pheasants are larger, louder, and wild, while quails are small, quiet, and typically friendly. Pheasants and quail also share some similarities, like their diet. 

Pheasant and quail diet

A diet based on the life stages of pheasants and quails is key to their health. Chicks up to six weeks old require feed that contains up to 30% protein. Chicks are susceptible to coccidiosis, making medicated pheasant and quail food favored for some flocks. At seven weeks, transition to a food with a protein content of about 22%, which they will stay on until they reach maturity at approximately 12 weeks. 

Adult pheasants and quails (those 12 weeks and older) require a feed containing roughly 20% protein. A pheasant or quail layer feed fortified with calcium is beneficial to egg-laying birds. Calcium can also be supplemented by providing oyster shells in addition to their regular food. It’s rare to see quail feed or pheasant feed specifically, but a general game bird feed typically meets both birds’ nutrient requirements. 

Raising game birds is a fun, rewarding, and often delicious experience. Serving your birds a menu of food tailored to their specific needs and life stages keeps them healthy and productive—a feather in the cap of any backyard bird owner.