The Nutritional Requirements of Chick, Pullet & Layer

Nutrition is an important part of poultry farming because the performances of chickens and other poultry birds depend majorly on their nutrition. One mistake some layer chicken farmers make is giving less focus to what their laying hens consume.

Each class of birds has its own specific nutritional requirements, and these requirements are always considered when formulating feed for chickens. Anything lower or higher would affect the performance of the chickens.

Thus, it is important to know the nutritional requirements for chicks and layers. When you have an idea of what your chickens need, feed analysis and formulation would be carried out efficiently.

The following are the nutritional requirements of chick, pullet, layer and old layer.

The Nutritional Requirements of Chicks (Chick Mash)

Nutrient Requirement
Metabolizable Energy (ME) 2800 kcal/kg (min)
Crude Protein (CP) 20% (min)
Crude Fat 5% (max)
Crude Fibre (CF) 5% (max)
Calcium 1% (min)
Phosphorus, available 0.45% (min)
Lysine 1% (min)
Methionine 0.52% (min)
Methionine + Cystine 0.86% (min)
Threonine 0.78% (min)
Tryptophan 0.20% (min)

The Nutritional Requirements of Pullets (Grower Mash)

Nutrient Requirement
Metabolizable Energy (ME) 2800 kcal/kg (min)
Crude Protein (CP) 18.00% (min)
Crude Fat 5.00% (max)
Crude Fibre (CF) 8.00% (max)
Calcium 1.00% (min)
Phosphorus, available 0.40% (min)
Lysine 1.00% (min)
Methionine 0.45% (min)
Methionine + Cystine 0.80% (min)
Threonine 0.60% (min)
Tryptophan 0.20% (min)

The Nutritional Requirements of Layer (Layer Mash)

Nutrient Requirement
Metabolizable Energy (ME) 2600 kcal/kg (min)
Crude Protein (CP) 16.50% (min)
Crude Fat 5.00% (max)
Crude Fibre (CF) 7.00% (max)
Calcium 3.60% (min)
Phosphorus, available 0.45% (min)
Lysine 0.87% (min)
Methionine 0.44% (min)
Methionine + Cystine 0.70% (min)
Threonine 0.60% (min)
Tryptophan 0.20% (min)

The Nutritional Requirements of Old Layers

Nutrient Requirement
Metabolizable Energy (ME) 2600 kcal/kg (min)
Crude Protein (CP) 16% (min)
Crude Fat 5.00% (max)
Crude Fibre (CF) 7.00% (max)
Calcium 4% (min)
Phosphorus, available 0.45% (min)
Lysine 0.87% (min)
Methionine 0.44% (min)
Methionine + Cystine 0.66% (min)
Threonine 0.60% (min)
Tryptophan 0.18% (min)

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Akinbobola A.

I'm a livestock farmer, certified animal scientist and agro consultant. You can follow Livestocking on Facebook and Twitter. Click here to send me an email
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3 thoughts on “The Nutritional Requirements of Chick, Pullet & Layer”

  1. how much ash in percentage to be missed with feed for layer chicken? if it increase form the standardized amount will it affect on chicken

    Reply

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