Broiler feed consumption per bird: week-by-week chart

What is broiler feed consumption per bird?

Broiler feed consumption per bird is the amount of feed, in grams, a single broiler eats each day and week of its life, from about 15-20 grams a day at week one up to 130-160 grams a day by week six. It rises fast because a broiler's appetite and body weight both roughly double every week for the first month — a chart that fits day 7 badly fits day 28 even worse, which is why feed consumption is tracked week-by-week rather than as one average number.

This number matters for two reasons. First, it is how you plan feed purchase — knowing the cumulative grams per bird for a given week, multiplied by flock size, tells you exactly how many bags to have on hand before the birds need them, not after the feeder runs dry. Second, it is the earliest warning signal on the farm: a flock eating noticeably less than the chart predicts is almost always sick, heat-stressed, or short of water or feeder space days before mortality or weight loss shows up on a scale.

Below is the full week-by-week chart, how to turn it into a feed purchase plan for your flock size, what a below-chart reading usually means, and how it connects to FCR — the number that decides whether the batch made money.

Broiler feed consumption chart by week (daily and cumulative)

These are typical ranges for standard broiler breeds under normal Indian shed conditions; treat them as a planning baseline and adjust a little for breed, season and target market weight. Cumulative figures are grams eaten per bird from day one through the end of that week.

• Week 1 (day 1-7): 15-20 g/day average, cumulative ~110-150 g by day 7.
• Week 2 (day 8-14): 30-45 g/day average, cumulative ~350-450 g by day 14.
• Week 3 (day 15-21): 55-75 g/day average, cumulative ~700-950 g by day 21.
• Week 4 (day 22-28): 85-105 g/day average, cumulative ~1,300-1,650 g by day 28.
• Week 5 (day 29-35): 110-135 g/day average, cumulative ~2,050-2,550 g by day 35.
• Week 6 (day 36-42): 130-160 g/day average, cumulative ~2,900-3,600 g by day 42.
• Total feed to reach a typical Indian market weight of 2.2-2.5 kg at 40-42 days: roughly 3.6-4.2 kg per bird, depending on breed, season and management.

How to turn the chart into a feed purchase plan

The chart is only useful once it is converted into bags, not grams. Take the cumulative per-bird target for the week you are planning against, multiply by the number of birds in the shed, then add a wastage buffer before you place the order.

Worked example: a shed of 5,000 birds entering week 4 needs roughly 1.3-1.65 kg cumulative per bird, or 6.5-8.25 tonnes of feed consumed by day 28. Add 3-5% for spillage and you know how many 50 kg bags to have delivered before that week starts, not after the last bag empties and the mill needs two more days to deliver.

• Multiply the week's cumulative per-bird target by flock size to get total feed needed to date.
• Subtract feed already delivered to find what still needs to arrive before the next weighing.
• Add a 3-5% buffer for spillage and feeder wastage, which is real feed cost even though the bird never ate it.
• Order a week ahead — feed mills need lead time, and running out mid-week means a growth check that never fully recovers.

Feed consumption and FCR: why the two numbers move together

Feed conversion ratio (FCR) is simply total feed consumed divided by total live weight gained, so feed consumption per bird is one half of every FCR calculation — you cannot know FCR without knowing how much was actually eaten, not just how much was delivered to the shed. A modern broiler under good management typically finishes between 1.6 and 1.8 FCR at 40-42 days; heat stress, disease or poor feed quality can push that past 2.0, which on a 5,000-bird batch is the difference between a healthy margin and a loss.

Tracking feed by bags delivered rather than feed actually consumed is the single biggest reason FCR calculations come out wrong on Indian farms — delivered feed includes spillage, rodent loss and what is still sitting unopened in the store, none of which the birds ate. Once you have an accurate week-by-week consumption figure, run it through our broiler FCR calculator alongside body weight to see exactly where a batch stands against target.

Why feed consumption drops below the chart

A flock eating less than the chart predicts is telling you something is wrong, usually before any other sign appears:

• Heat stress — broilers cut feed intake noticeably above their thermoneutral zone; every degree above it can shave a percentage or more off daily consumption, worse in humid weather.
• Water shortage — a broiler that cannot drink enough will not eat enough either; check drinker flow and line pressure before assuming a feed problem.
• Disease, especially coccidiosis or gut infections, which reduce appetite days before mortality rises.
• Feeder space shortage as birds grow — feeders sized for week 2 create real competition for feed by week 5.
• Sudden feed changes (a new batch, a different mill, a coarser or finer grind) that birds take a day or two to adjust to.
• Poor feed quality — mold, rancid fat or a stale batch reduces palatability even when the formulation on paper looks correct.

Common mistakes in tracking feed consumption

Most feed-tracking errors are simple habits, not complicated problems:

• Tracking bags emptied instead of feed actually consumed, which hides spillage and store losses.
• Checking once a week instead of daily — a flock can be off the chart for four or five days before a weekly check catches it.
• Using one national average curve for every season, when a summer batch under heat stress needs a lower target and closer watching than a winter batch.
• Not separating feed lost to wastage from feed the birds actually ate, which understates true feed cost per kilogram of live weight.
• Forgetting to adjust the target when switching breeds or when the target market weight and age change from batch to batch.

How automated feed and growth tracking catches problems early

Weighing feed by hand once a day tells you yesterday's number; it does not tell you the flock has been drifting off-chart since Tuesday. A monitoring system that logs feed bin weight and shed conditions continuously can flag a consumption drop the same day it starts, cross-check it against shed temperature and humidity to point at heat stress rather than disease, and feed the numbers straight into an FCR calculation instead of a notebook that gets reconciled once a week.

That kind of tracking is one part of a full poultry monitoring setup alongside temperature, humidity and ammonia sensing — see how they work together in our guide to IoT for poultry farms, and how the brooding stage sets up the whole feed curve in our broiler brooding temperature chart.

Plan this batch's feed with confidence

A feed chart only pays off if you check the flock against it every day, not just when the feed bill arrives. See how automated feed, weight and shed monitoring fit together for Indian broiler sheds on our poultry farm monitoring page, or book a meeting with the MD to talk through your shed size and target market weight.