Why add salt to chicken feed? The reason is here

The elements chlorine and sodium exist in the body fluids, soft tissues and eggs of chickens. They maintain the acid-base balance of the chicken's body, keep the osmotic pressure balance between cells and blood, and enable the chicken's tissues to retain a certain amount of water. In addition, they are also the raw materials for forming gastric juice and gastric acid, can promote the activity of digestive enzymes, and play a major role in the digestion and absorption of fat and protein. Salt can improve the palatability of the diet, promote appetite, and increase feed utilization.

Therefore, salt is both an essential nutrient and a flavoring agent. If the chicken's diet contains insufficient salt, it will cause poor appetite and digestive disorders, retarded development and feather-pecking behavior in chicks, and reduced body weight, egg weight and egg production rate in laying hens. The salt content in the chicken's diet should be 0.37%-0.5%, and the amount used must be accurate. When formulating the diet, the salt content of animal-based feed should be considered, and then the amount of supplemental salt should be determined. For example, when using salted fish meal in the diet, its salt content must first be analyzed; otherwise, excessive use of salted fish meal often causes salt poisoning.