Agh! Fed treats without grit!

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motherhenning

In the Brooder
Apr 11, 2016
16
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Well, I just made a mistake that may end up being nothing, but has me worried :/ I wanted to introduce the chicks to their babycake treat, so I took a small amount and crumbled it in my hand. One or two pecked at it for a second but none showed much interest yet, so I just scattered that bit inside the brooder. I forgot, however, that they have no grit right now! I just went outside and got a clump of dirt and sprinkled that inside the brooder, too, so they can find the tiny rocks. Will that be alright for tonight until I can get grit at the store tomorrow? And how big should the rocks be for them? And when I do get the grit, do I keep it in a bowl or scatter that too? They're about a week old right now. Can't believe I forgot!
 
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Sleep easy, they'll be fine
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At only a week old, they're going to ingest very, very little of the treat. The dirt will provide what they need, it's what they'd get if they were out with Momma hen and eating their first greens or bugs.

I like to scatter my grit (and oyster shell when they get older). I feel it encourages scratching, and foraging, those are both very basic behaviors for chickens.
 
Phew, that's good to hear! Thanks for the quick response :) I think scattering is what I'll do with mine too then, it'll give them something to do while they're in there! It was just such a forehead-slapping moment for me because I'm usually so adamant about being careful, and making sure everyone else is too (we have cats and dogs in the house)!
 
Slightly offtopic question, but is there anything I can give to prevent coccidiosis? They're not on medicated feed right now (although I do want to switch to that). Is Corid only given to treat already existing cases or is it used as a preventative as well?
 
I'm in the wet PNW and have had cocci issues on and off in the past, so I just use medicated feed until they've been on the ground a few weeks. Your chicks are only a week old, it shouldn't be an issue yet. If you're concerned, I'd go ahead and switch to the medicated feed. If you've got unmedicated starter left, just hold on to it and feed it to them after they're done with the medicated course.

I do think there's a dose of Corid you can give as a preventative, but I'm not sure what it is right off. You could probably do a search here and find out.
 
Thanks! I went out and got some Purina medicated feed today, as well as some grit, so they should be good to go now :D How slowly should I be transitioning them to the medicated one? And since we have a lot of the nonmedicated left, my mom actually wants to keep the two mixed, but I'm not so sure that's a good idea. I'll try and get her to just hang onto it for when they've finished the medicated, like you suggested. We've got a new brooder to set up, as well:




It's very long, but not as high or wide as the rubbermaid bucket they're in now. We just can't keep them in there because they're already outgrowing it! We're hoping that this will work if we bend hardware cloth over the top and clamp it to the sides, so they can't fly out. Do you think that will be alright?
 
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Don't mix the two feeds or you'll dilute out the "medication" part of the medicated feed and defeat the purpose of using it.

More space horizontally is definitely better. I have used screens to keep the chicks in my first brooder--it was a plastic storage bin designed to hold an xmas tree, so long but not tall.
 
That's what I thought might happen! I'll definitely keep her from doing that, then. I think our bin is actually a similar type, since she called it a "Christmas" bin, haha. I'm excited to get these girls (and guys, possibly) into their new brooder :) Right now they're constantly stepping over each other. They're right outside my bedroom, so whenever I hear loud chirping at night I run out there going "Oh god, what's wrong?", but nope, nothing's wrong, they're chirping because one chick just decided to flutter across the bin and land on the rest of the flock's heads while they're sleeping. LOL
 

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