Commercial Poultry Production and Hatchery Management

RESTRICTED FEEDING

• It is adopted during growing period of layers or breeders.
• There are two types of restricted feeding.

Quantitative feed restriction

• In which the amount of feed is reduced below the normal requirement of birds.
• This can be done on day-to-day basis or skip-a-day programme or skip-two days in a week programme.
• But this restriction depends on the matching of the flock average body weight with standard body weight provided by the breeder.
• Quantitative feed restriction is usually followed in commercial breeders.

Qualitative feed restriction

• In which the quality of the feed is reduced below the standard requirement of the bird.
• This can be done by including unconventional feeds or lesser nutrient feed ingredients in place of high protein or high energy diet.
• Here the quantity of allotment to the bird is not restricted.

• During restricted feeding programme, provide more number of feeders and see that all the birds are taking feed simultaneously or otherwise dominant birds will take more amount of feed and the weaker will be subjected to feed deprivation and hence the uniformity will be affected.