Can I give baby chicks ants or worms?

[Chicken_whisperer]

First of all...

I agree with Sparrow. All ants contain acid...and some can make them sick. Also, with live food, I give my chicks "Chick Grit" to help them digest it. I give worms to my chicks...but their favorite snacks are small crickets. I buy the smallest crickets I can from the pet store and put a little grit in their food afterword. It is VERY funny to watch them catch them and play "Keepaway"

 

[pbjmaker]

"KeepAway" is my favorite game too. My RIR got her name "Cupcake" when she was just 4 days old because I had set her on the carpet at school and she found a red cupcake sprinkle from a b-day party earlier that day. It was like she had found the most valuable treasure in the whole world. She took that sprinkle and ran for her life...

My two chicks spend most of their day hanging out in my butterfly garden eating ants and aphids and they seem fine.

Now if only they would eat the mosquitos!

 

[ibpboo]

None of my chickens eat the ants around here. Guess they taste horrid! But as far as the babies go, I do let them out and about under supervision and if they eat a worm or bug or whatever, it is just fine. They also pick up little sands when in the dirt. I agree with Hickchick, bugs aren't really treats, but a part of the chicken diet.

 

[Sparrow]

Guys, I can attest to the fact that ants taste terrible. I've accidentally eaten 2 of them over the past month.

One crawled into my burrito, one on the edge of my pop can. The tiny black "Sugar Ants" are absolutely disgusting...the smaller ants(small=defenseless) usually are. Each time, as soon as I felt this creepy little crunch in my mouth this HORRID taste exploded all over into my mouth and wafted up into my sinuses.

It is like a planty, extremely acidic, bitter taste that lasts for awhile, no matter what you rinse your mouth with. Ugh. I check my food before I eat it now if ants are about.

When one of my Australorp roos was little, I watched him bite a Sugar Ant in my house. He spit the thing out SO fast and ran off shaking his head. Poor guy, he never tried eating one again. lol

Carpenter ants are not gross tasting...I ate some on a dare as a kid.......b ut they are BIG and have one heck of a pinch. So, I would just avoid them altogether. Go with mealworms/crickets!

 

[flakey chick]

Ok that's kind of funny even though I know it was no fun.

I'll chime in. I had a baby chick choke and die eatting a worm. At least so I was told. I was 4 years old, sick with a fever and not allowed outside. My sisters told me about the big worm it caught, but I wasn't allowed to leave the house to see. Then they gave me the sad news.

 

[JennsPeeps]

Thanks for posting about the crickets. My 3 girls are 3 weeks old and we've been considering getting some crickets at the pet store to keep them busy in their ever-smaller brooder.

I'll probably get some meal worms, too, to bribe the chicks to come to me when they're outside. We've been letting them outside for short stints - always closely supervised - and they're getting harder to catch, despite daily handling.

 

[HickChick Wannabe]

Lots of great info! Thanks for the help! And what an awful way to find out, but that's good to know, Sparrow!

 

[Eggseronious]

What do you think these babies eat while with their with mother hen browsing around the fields. Im sure its chick starter in natures purest form, right!

 

[K7 Menagerie]

My 9 week old chicks love mealies, crickets, caterpillars, whatever they find. I do give them some parakeet seed as a treat too, but I do make sure there is grit available to them at all times.

The funny thing is, the treat they seem to love the BEST is simply their crumbles, mixed with warm water into a mash. They jump over each other trying to get to that!

 

[1acrefarm]

My little 9 little babies were hatched Saturday. They are ducklings not chicks. I think the basic mechanism of the digestive system is about the same. They follow mom all over the yard. They mostly ignore the starter feed (they eat a little then take off) and eat grass seed and little bugs and catch flies. Oh the horror. I think most of us are forgetting that once upon a time long ago these animals were not yet domesticated. I doubt they had chick starter in prehistoric times. Just a thought.