My baby chicks have rice in crop, should I be worried, can their small organs digest rice?

[FeynmanLectures]

Hello, firstly I want to say that I have 4 baby chicks of 2 and a half weeks old and that I feed and take care of them with my grandpa. I take care of the baby chicks by feeding them, giving them water and learning from internet information, like here, on how to raise the baby chicks, but my grandpa is very skeptical of internet information and he believes that because he worked in a farm in his 20s and gave rice to baby chicks, from what he remembers, he now can and should give rice to baby chicks, while from what I found while researching the topic was that I should not give rice to the baby chicks below 10 weeks old, so now I found out that the baby chicks had their crop swollen and when I go feel it, you guessed it, it was rice.

1. Baby Chicks (4), 2 and a half weeks old, normal size
2. When they went to sleep they were a little moving, not moving as chickens with fast movements but fluid movement like humans
3. It has been exhibiting that 1 day, I saw it at night and when I woke up I saw their crop smaller but not empty and still felt rice
4. Seems that 2 didn't eat rice so they have their crop empty but the other 2 have it a little swollen from the rice
5. No injury or bleeding
6. The situation is expressed above this list
7. It has been eating crushed almonds and some scrambled egg, but without my consent my grandpa gave them rice and corn pieces (the hard corn)
8. It seems ok, the usual
9. I haven't done any treatment, I found you should do nothing but I came here for guidance
10. I hope you guys can help me
11. Ill send a photo after writing this
12. They sleep in a box with a water station and food dispersed around, then when is time to sleep a mantle is given to them (they do go outside, 2 or 3 times a day for about 30 to 60 minutes)

P.S.
They ate full size rice grains and uncooked, not pieces or smashed rice, will they be fine?

 

[Aapomp831]

Stop feeding them rice. They need chick food.... rice is a filler with very little nutrients and right now they need to grow properly. Giving them rice is like giving a toddler macaroni and cheese - then expecting them to eat their broccoli. They are going to fill up on this worthless carb and neglect their feed which has all the proper nutrients and vitamins that they need to grow. Rice, corn and all high carb foods should be treats given to fully grown pullets occasionally. I never give my chicks treats until they are several months old - and it’s in serious moderation. And they need grit ASAP if you’ve already given them something other than their chick food.

 

[SueT]

Chickens need grit to digest hard grains. You can buy grit for baby chicks at a feed store or if you live where you can’t, they or you can find it in the ground outside....
Can you get chick feed where you live? This is the best food for baby chicks. Grains are best saved till they are older.

 

[Aapomp831]

In India and other Asian countries broccoli is DELICIOUS. Some of my friends are Irish and Italian and they loved it too as kids.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Nothing artificial about chick feed. It's a balanced diet of protein, grains, vitamins, & nutrients they need to grow up healthy. Some breeds of chicks require more fat in their diet for better growth, & feather growth rate. Figured this out with my Malays.

Good source of Fat for them is in Farmers Helper, UltraKibble, & Baby Cakes. The UltraKibble also has extra protein, almost 30% protein.


Yes, I agree with the rest, rice should only be given cooked, otherwise there's gonna be problems.

 

[Aapomp831]

You can mix rice with chick starter but you have to crush it into small bits. It's fine if they eat it. My parents have also been raising chicks when they were younger and gave their chickens rice bits too and they seemed fine.

Nope. Definitely not a good idea. Things have changed a lot, and if you want healthy chickens that is not the way to go. Even mixed into their food, they will pick it out. These are not your grandfathers chickens from the early 1900s... things have changed drastically since then. Bottom line - if you give your kid Mac and cheese and broccoli on the same plate, what are they going to favor?

 

[Emelyn]

Nope. Definitely not a good idea. Things have changed a lot, and if you want healthy chickens that is not the way to go. Even mixed into their food, they will pick it out. These are not your grandfathers chickens from the early 1900s... things have changed drastically since then. Bottom line - if you give your kid Mac and cheese and broccoli on the same plate, what are they going to favor?

I loved broccoli as a kid though and if you gave the broccoli, mac and cheese to me as a kid I would mix the broccoli in and eat it and think it tasted good.

 

[Aapomp831]

I loved broccoli as a kid though and if you gave the broccoli, mac and cheese to me as a kid I would mix the broccoli in and eat it and think it tasted good.

.... I’m not specifically talking about every toddler in the world I’m talking about what’s most common, and you know that.

 

[Aapomp831]

I would wait to see if there is anything wrong with their vent. If there is I would chop up some bits of onion since it can help them digest better (some people will say onion is bad for their health but I gave some to my leghorn before when there was something wrong with her vent and she got better with a few days but she was an adult by then. I'm not too sure for chicks maybe give the chick 10-15 small diced up cubes only)

Wrong with the vent? It’s the CROP that is the concern. Their vents have nothing to do with this.....

 

[FeynmanLectures]

Hmm, you guys seem hopeful, I hope nothing bad happens to the chicks, of course I will take note on the other suggestions you guys gave, I just hope the chicks will be ok and if something happens, either betterment or demise, I will notify here.