At what age can chicks have scratch?

[debid]

Meal worms can be a problem for young chicks. I learned the hard way.

What happened?

 

[Perris]

And, what makes you @Miusername think that the mealworms were responsible for whatever happened?

My chicks thrive on live mealworms, and their broodies quietly bring their chicks to me in order to make sure they get plenty without competition from the rest of the flock.

 

[FrostRanger]

I sure hope scratch comes in something smaller than 50 lbs! It would take a few bantam chicks forever to go through it! I'm learning all I can about what they eat, although I am getting the idea from reading on this board that they can pretty much eat whatever humans eat. As a treat, of course. Now I have to decide on what starter food to give them. Mash or crumbles? I'm going to buy a SMALL bag if possible until I know what they prefer. I appreciate all the help!

That's why I don't buy scratch, the wsmallest I've seen at tractor supply is 10lbs and I give it so infrequently that 95% of it would go bad before I could use it all. If I need to call my girls in with food, I just use a little cat food since I always have that on hand.

Whatever you use, keep it to less than 10% of their diet, for that reason I'd refrain from giving chicks scratch until they are older. Sure, they *can* eat it now if they have grit but they really should mainly be eating their chick feed as proper nutrition is especially important now. If you want to give them a treat, mix some of their chick feed with water and give it to them, they'll go nuts for it, all of mine did

 

[Altairsky]

My broody hens will introduce seeds to the chicks as soon as they leave the nest. No matter how much chick starter they have, the broody will always introduce to them a wide variety of different foods. I witnessed a 3 day old eat a stinkbug whole.