Chickens do not have teeth to grind up their food. Instead they use grit in their gizzard to grind the food. Grit is just hard rocks or sand. If you buy grit, it will probably be granite because it is reall hard and works well, plus it is a cheap by-product of granite quarrying. But about any rock will work as grit. The harder it is the longer it will last. Good granite might last a month. Softer rocks could be gone in days.
If all the chicks eat is the prepared chick feed, they do not need grit. It has already been ground up real fine, then formed into crumbles using water. Their gizzard can handle that just fine.
If you feed them about anything else, they should have grit. It's not that they are automatically going to die if they don't have grit, but it is a possibility. Remember that just because something can happen does not mean that it will each and every time. What can happen with some foods, like grass, is that it can form a wad in their gizzard and cannot pass on through their system. It can block the exit from their gizzard so nothing can pass through and cause a condition called impacted gizzard. Don't freak out because you gave them some grass. They will probably be fine. Just know it can cause a problem.
They also need grit to grind up many of the foods so they can get nutrition out of them.
There are things you can give them and not give them grit. Yogurt for one. The cucumber should be fine but don't give them the seeds. I'm sure there are many things you could give them without grit, but it is usually so easy to give them some grit, why worry about it.
For chicks, a great grit is a coarse sand, like construction sand. Don't use play sand. It is too fine and will pass right on through their system. I've gone to a gravel drive and collected some of the finer pebbles and sand from that. You can just cut up a piece of turf, roots, dirt, top, and all, and give that to them. The dirt works as grit. You can sometimes find chick grit at the feed store. It is smaller pieces than the regular pullet grit. You can find parakeet grit at a pet shop, but be careful with it. A lot of the parakeet grit can have extra calcium in it. Check the label. Extra calcium can be harmful to a growing chick.
I like to give it on the side, but you can mix it with their food if you wish.
A grown chicken can use grit as large as a green pea, but for chicks it needs to be smaller. I don't know how to give you a size, just something like coarse sand or maybe a little bit bigger. They can handle things bigger than you would expect.
A good way to give them grit is to just take them out on dirt for a while. They will get their own.
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought....Abraham Lincoln (Freedom carries responsibility)
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.....Judge Learned Hand (The more sure your are that your way is the only right way, the more likely you are wrong.)
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought....Abraham Lincoln (Freedom carries responsibility)
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.....Judge Learned Hand (The more sure your are that your way is the only right way, the more likely you are wrong.)
