Adding Food to the Chick Feed

[TheklaF]

We got our baby chicks last Friday from TS (golden comets). I'm not quite sure exactly how old they are since this is our first time (and I didn't think to ask). When can I add boiled egg to their diet? Should I even add anything for the first couple of weeks?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Kiki]

Feeding a complete poultry feed is the best diet for your birds.
You can give them treats but keep them limited.
Boiled eggs if fine...just be sure to offer grit, on the side, if you start to offer treats.

 

[rkapfen]

I personally give my 5 day old chicks a mix of the hard boiled yoke with some starter feed but only let them eat it out of my hand. I want them to eat all their treats from my hand as much as possible. I have done tons of research with the grit thing and I’ve read from multiple people that offering hard boiled yoke or scrambled egg you so not need grit as it’s soft and easyily digested but grit never hurt!

 

[Zinjifrah]

With mine, when I got some badly stressed chicks and lost two of them, I took hard boiled egg yolk, plain yogurt, and a little water, mixed it into a creamy consistency and mixed in chick crumble until it was slightly moist, but crumbly. That was after confirming that they weren't interested in the yolk or yogurt by itself, other than the week old Silkie who attacked my scrambled eggs while I was trying to eat MY dinner. Fortunately, they were plain, rather than salted!

After starting to feed the slightly moistened chick feed with yolk and yogurt, the rest of the chicks bounced back FAST, they don't dig any of their food out of the feeder like they do when it's dry, and given a choice between moist and dry, they'll go for the moist - with just water or with yogurt, I don't add the yolk any more now that they're healthy - every time. It only takes a few minutes to mix up. I just make sure I do it in small batches, so that they eat it all before there's any risk of mildew or mold.

That said, I'm also a rank beginner with chickens, so I recommend taking my response with a large grain of salt and referring to the wealth of those who know vastly more than I do. My oldest and first chick is only just about four weeks old now (The Silkie who stole my dinner). I do have chick grit available. I figure if they want it they'll use it, mostly they just like to play in it.

 

[sirrobyn0]

So folks are going to disagree with this but I have had good luck with it. I use to do the starter feed thing, but not any more. When I first started with raising chicks I use to by the medicated starter feed. Then I began raising other birds, so I didn't have to have different containers of starter food around I switched to non-medicated. Now the adult birds get layer pellets, and the babies get layer crumbles. I don't feed boiled egg, never really felt the need, except in the instance of an ill bird. Also use to have issues with pasty butt, and don't seem to so much any more not sure if that is related or just the way it has worked out.

 

[lazy gardener]

Aside from the fermented unmedicated chick starter, my chicks get:

Poultry Nutri Drench

Scrambled egg

A plug of sod from an untreated lawn. The sod provides: first grit, minerals, first greens, seeds, insects, perhaps some worms, beneficial bacteria and fungi to kick start their gut flora and immune systems, and first exposure to the pathogens they will encounter in their yard. IMO, sod is an essential and should be provided during the first 2 weeks of a chicks life, while her antibody count is at it's highest. (antibodies are received from the chick's mother) Chicks also get infinite play value and first dust bath from that chunk of sod. When they wear the first chunk out, I give them an other. They have fresh sod available until they are turned loose in their run. (Which is early b/c my chicks are brooded in a grow out coop with MHP method.)