You are correct.
Mums showing their chicks what to eat has actually been a bit of a problem for me; maybe not for the chicks.
While mum is still hatching I put medicated chick feed in with them and of course water.
Here mums and chicks have instant access to the outside and if the hatch goes well, mum marches the chicks out often within 24 hours. Sometimes the more cautious mums or those that have chosen to hatch in coops with ramps take a little longer to get the chicks out.
While the chicks are at the nest site they eat the chick feed but sometimes when mum gets them onto the ground, she won't let them eat the medicated feed. I've put small bowls down and had mums tip them over and scratch the feed out and hustle the chicks away. Obviously this poses a bit of a problem.
On quite a few occasions over the years I've ended up having to try and hand feed the chicks to get them to eat at least some of the medicated feed with a very irritable mum trying to scratch it out of my hand. I persevere for on average three weeks just to make sure the chicks get some of the medicated feed. After that I've had to leave some in the nest site and discourage the elders from going in and raiding it, and checked the date on my Coccivex bottle just in case!
.I've been really surprised at just what mum does encourage the chicks to eat. One of the funniest, but a bit savage sights is mum trying to persuade a handful of chicks that a recently killed mouse was edible. Of course, the chicks don't have the beak strength to pick through the fur, or the coordination to stand on the carcass while they peck.
