dehydrated worms

At what age can you give your chick's dehydrated meal worms?

I generally wait a week until offering any sort of treats. Be sure to offer chick-sized grit with any treats. You may have to break the worms into pieces if they seem too big for your chicks.

Several years ago, I watched my broody hen feed her chick bits of tortilla on his first day after hatching. I hadn't had time to set up a feeder with chick crumbles yet, and she was doing what she figured was best for her chick. He suffered no ill effects, even though he had not had any grit yet.

This week, the second day after I brought my four new chicks home, I let them have some live meals worms. They had no problem knowing what to do with them, and after the requisite game of keep away, which is the most entertaining thing you have in store for yourself if you're a new chick parent, the tiny chick stood there and expertly gobbled the worm down.

Grit was something they had been getting from the sand in their pen since they'd been installed, so digesting the worms wasn't an issue.

In the past, I've had chicks be suspicious of worms and refuse to have anything to do with them. Others readily took to live meal worms, but refused to consider the whitish worms that had recently shed their exoskeletons. But all my chicks have handled meal worms and other treats splendidly with no digestive problems from their very first week.