Can I Give Chicks Play Sand as Grit?

[lazy gardener]

Depends on where you are. All of my soil, grit included is frozen solid and buried under 6" of snow and ice.

 

[PlanterJeff]

Depends on where you are. All of my soil, grit included is frozen solid and buried under 6" of snow and ice.

well that could make it really tough! And here I am complaining about our first cold snap.

 

[DanEP]

Play sand will work fine but another option is construction sand which also contains larger stones which will serve their needs as they grow.

 

[azygous]

Interesting observation: wild birds and wild turkeys around my place like to follow me as I shovel snow and expose the fine stones in the gravel beneath the deep snow. Opportunists, my avian buddies.

My chickens have all the grit they need in their covered run of masonry and construction sand.

 

[lazy gardener]

well that could make it really tough! And here I am complaining about our first cold snap.

We're having a mild winter. Low temps at night 5*. Previous 2 winters, there were weeks when it didn't get up to 0*F at all! I'll be complaining more about the heat. Anything above 80 kills me.

 

[bjerro]

Play sand is an excellent grit for chicks. It's what I use. I use sand in my run, and all the flock has plenty of grit.

I put a small tub of sand in the brooder when the chicks are around a week old. They love jumping in and dirt bathing in it! You've never seen anything so cute as a tiny chick dirt bathing!

After they have grit, I introduce the babies to earth worms. Good times!

Make sure any finch grit from the pet store doesn't have calcium added to it, as it's not good for growing chicks.

Is any kind of sand OK for the brooder?

 

[azygous]

As long as it's clean and has no toxic additives.

 

[Dragonflydore]

Should I limit my chicks access to playsand grit?

They are 1-1.5 weeks old and I have been handfeeding them treats 1-2 times a day as I want them to have good recall and be easily handled.

I put a cup of sand in a dish for them and they are going nuts. Is that too much at once or will they self regulate how much they need/eat!?

 

[azygous]

They will appear to gobble the sand, but as soon as their gizzards are adequately kitted out, they will taper off.

 

[Dragonflydore]

Thank you!