Topic of the Week - Feeding Treats

[bajabirdbrain]

Today the girls got their first ever snack of crickets!!! I had ordered some meal worms from Rainbow Meal Worms and added some crickets to the order. They were pretty cheap and didn't change the shipping so thought I would see how the kids liked them. Biggest problem was trying to give each girl their fair share. As you probably know some kids are more aggressive and better at hogging the treats. Still was fun watching them go after something that was moving. BB

 

[casportpony]

Today's treat were mouse pinkies!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Eggs were mine today.

 

[brucifer]

We had a popcorn party.

 

[rkinley]

Today's treat was Watermelon.

 

[hayleys212]

I started giving treats at about 2 months. But it varies on how often. Depends on what we are having for supper I divide the scraps up between them and our bunny. Depending on what it is it goes straight into the compact pile. We give the tips of strawberries, or the ones that aren't as nice, apples, grapes, bel peppers, carrots, celery....just a variety of things. They have grit but occasionally I'll throw in some egg shells for them.

 

[maya.fh]

For everyone who feeds mealworms and crickets, where do you buy them from?

 

[bajabirdbrain]

For everyone who feeds mealworms and crickets, where do you buy them from?

We have been buying both from rainbowmealworms.net Very satisfied with their customer service and product. On 5-8 we bought 2,000 of the 3/4" meal worms. We fed these to our 11 13 week or so old chicks once per day. We would put worms into 2 separate containers and then try and split up the flock so that we had some chance of getting worms distributed on a fair and equal basis(good luck). Challenging as some are aggressive pigs and others shy. We fed our last worms from this order on 7-13 and they were a nice large size by then.

The challenge is to order enough to treat your kids but don't keep them so long that the worms turn into beetles. We were just starting to get a few beetles and pupa but not a problem. We also ordered another 2,000 of the 3/4" worms again along with some 3/4" crickets and they arrived on 7-13. We hope that our timing works about the same as the 3/4" worms are just a teeny bit on the small size but we are concerned that if we order larger worms they will turn into beetles too quickly.

We are making a half ass attempt at raising some worms on our own. It looks like the challenge is to "schedule" the growth of the worms so that we have enough large worms for the girls and not have a glut of either beetles or very small worms. For what we have invested in time and money into these 11 chicks, ordering more often from Rainbow Mealworms is probably the easiest option. We only ordered 50 crickets and they were interesting to introduce to the girls. Will try again but will probably go with the 1" size.

Can't believe how much time and effort we put into this new chapter of pets, sigh.

 

[Maqui]

Most dried mealworms come from China. There is a product called Grubblies, black soldier fly larvae, which are from the USA. http://grubblyfarms.com/ . My hens love them.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

For everyone who feeds mealworms and crickets, where do you buy them from?

I buy live meal worms and crickets from the pet store. They're intended as reprise feed, but the chickens do go nuts for them! You can also by dried ones from the grocery store or where they sell wild bird food.