50/50 starter/scratch pasty butt prevention?

[chicks are better than tv]

My chicks are 3 weeks old now and all okay.
When i was buying supplies prior to having the chicks the lady at the Co op told me that mixing scratch with the starter will help prevent pasting. I haven't had any problems, but i noticed in a different post people suggest not giving scratch untill they are older. Any opinions?

 

[pips&peeps]

Chicks cannot digest scratch, just look at it and do a size comparison from a piece of scratch to what you would imagine their digestive tracks are.

I have seen people kill them by feeding it.

I believe pasting is from stress and temperature fluctuations.

 

[Pampered Hen]

Scratch is snack food and should not be given to baby chicks at all. First, it doesn't provide the nutrition the little guys require and second, it is basically cracked corn and requires grit in the chicken gizzard to be properly digested. You can provide your baby chicks with appropriate sized grit (little stones) so they have the ability to grind down other foodstuff, but remember that they need their chick starter (which provides the balanced nutrition) to develop into healthy birds.

 

[WalkingWolf]

The best solution to pasty butt I have found is a coffee grinder. Take the starter and grind it to a powder. I started doing this because the chicks prefer the powder to the chunks and waste most of the feed. So when I started grinding amazingly any pasty butt problems I had disappeared.

 

[chicks are better than tv]

the scratch is actually smaller than the starter. about as big as course cornmeal.

 

[chicks are better than tv]

as well it is mixed with the starter feed.

 

[JewellFarm]

If I gave it too them, it would be very little and they need some type of grit to be able to digest it properly. I have used ground up oatmeal added to their starter feed and apple cider vinegar added to the water with fantastic results. If they aren't showing any sign of it however, I wouldn't treat for it.