My chicks have Diarrhea?

No grits - - - Should I be giving them grits along with their regular chick food? Been reading so much - it all starts to get confusing so I have been trying to stay with the basics. Thank you!
 
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As soon as you start giving them anything other than their Starter, they need grit to help digest it. Their baby food is specially made of highly digestible stuff, so they don't need the grit for that. But for everything else, they do. You can mix a bit of grit with their regular food, sprinkle on their treats, etc. I wouldn't give them a separate bowl of grit though, they can fill up on that instead of food (well, they are babies!). We only give our chicks grit with their treats (sprinkle on yogurt or a mash we make with hardboiled egg & their starter + sugar water & vitamins). Seems to work fine.

ETA: don't use oyster shell. If you don't have a feed store accessible, buy grit made for parakeets or canaries or something like that, but check to see that it's not Oyster shell. If you can't find that, buy sterilized fine sand (can sometimes find it by lizard supplies).
 
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I have 3 week old chicks myself and ran into the same thing with pasty butt. I did alot of research which paid off and mine are all doing great. Basically grind up oatmeal and add to their food. I use medicated feed which is for coccidiosis but still had a problem with pasty butt. The oatmeal worked wonderfully. Just keep the butt clean and you should start seeing a huge difference with the oatmeal. Hope this helps.
 
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I don't know if this is a typo, but please don't give them GRITS! They need grit, not grits, because it helps them digest their food (since they don't have teeth to grind it down). You can purchase it at TSC or your local feed store.
 
Ha!! Sorry about that - Grit - from Oreschlens (I think that's how you spell it). . . anyway - made for chickens 8 weeks & older.
Thanks again for your help.
 
I was having the problem with diarrhea myself. I got the wrong feed and after i found out what I did I put them back on chick starter and no longer have the problem. It wasn't sticking to their butts but they had it.

Maybe its two different things here.
 
I have now joined the ranks of diarrhea chick.
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Mine are now four weeks old and feathered out nicely, so I turned off the heat lamp a few days ago (therefore this can't be because they are too hot). They're still living in my kitchen. One that I've identified so far has the trots; no pasty butt (yet) but a very, very watery poo with some brown bits in it and what looks like digested chick grit? They are on medicated starter and I've been giving them treats as well, with no side effects until now. Gave them watermelon yesterday and today, so maybe that is causing the diarrhea, especially since it's so watery? Have taken away the watermelon but do I need to do something/anything else? Oatmeal, which they love? Have always had ACV in their water. The poo is like pure water with these bits in it, and seems like a lot of it. Do I need to segregate the one with the diarrhea?
 
Im having this problem too! I have 6about 1 1/2 month old silkies and one started having very runny poop today and it smells REALLY BAD! Im feeding them chick starter but i dont think its medicated. Should I start feeding them the medicated kind? Should I give them yogart? I need some advise please!
 

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