At what age do they get grit/treats?

[traceyleezle]

My wee little chicks will be two weeks old on Friday and man it just kills me how much they have changed even in the week that we have owned them! Mah babies is gettin' so big!

Anywho, I noticed that we have started taking an interest in scratching the pine shavings around looking for stuff. At what age do you put grit/treats in for the little buggers? I'm so new, I have no clue what I'm doing, just going on what I've read on here/books. I want to be a good chicken mama, so someone please hold my hand and walk me through the next few weeks.

 

[Judy]

I give them both in the first week. I just limit the quantity so most of what they eat is feed. My 4 or 5 day olds had a ball with tiny pieces of fresh apple today. Opinions do vary, though; many prefer to wait a couple of weeks or so. They need access to grit for most any treat except maybe yogurt or scrambled eggs. Have you see our BYC treats chart:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

 

[Momagain1]

well they dont NEED grit/treats...thats extra...

personally I couldnt wait..but then I worried that they wouldnt eat enough grit to help them..so I just stopped..now I give them treats all the time, they are
11 weeks old; but they have plenty of coarse sand in the run to eat..so that suffices as grit..

 

[AZSummer]

I just gave our 4-week olds and 1-week olds meal worms for the first time. It was a hoot!!

The 4-weeks olds wouldn't take the worms from my hand so I dumped a bit in their cage. It was probably best. I read on here that they can associate your fingers with food and peck at them. They just stared at the pile of worms for the longest time. Once one figured out the worms were food, chaos ensued! They all played chicken football with their worm, trying to find a safe place to eat it. When the worms were gone, they began digging in their litter, their grit, their food - anywhere to find more worms! The digging actually became a bit violent. One of the girls was bound and determined to find more worms.

For the 1-week olds, there was only a worm for each of them, dampened and sprinkled with grit. Only 1 of the 1-week olds figured out the worms were food. She got 3 worms while the other 2 chicks wanted nothing to do with them. She figured it out faster than the 4-week olds. I think by the last worm the other 2 little ones realized worms were tasty. They're all now chirping away, begging for more worms! Maybe next week they'll get some too.

 

[CowgirlPenny]

All of mine start getting grit and treats (mostly just mealworms, eggs, leftover fruit,etc) at 3 weeks old. That's because that's when they move outside in the brooder and that one is set up with sand for grit. The inside brooder is aspen only.

As long as you supply grit, go ahead and give them some treats now. I would probably start simple with something like yogurt, scrambled eggs, or ramen noodles (mine LOVE noodles)