Chick clueless what to do with a mealworm

[mshirk]

I have 3 BO chicks (3 weeks old). They get SUPER excited when I give them mealworms. I feed them on the end of long orange/red plastic chopsticks as I don't want to touch the worms

Anyway, they all snatch the worms off the chopsticks, then run away with them. Two of the chicks peck and play and gobble the worm down. One of the chicks loses interest once it is off the chopstick. It honestly is clueless what to do next. I've tried occupying the others over on the side with some worms of their own, and repeatedly pecking at the worm, or regiving the worm on the chopsticks. Nothing.
This has been going on for over 2 weeks.

I think one of my chicks is missing a few chicken brain cells

Luckily, it is growing at the same rate as the others, despite missing out on all that extra protein!

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

My chicks do the same thing! A few weeks ago I gave them an earthworm and non of them were interested in it! I have no clue why! I figured they would have loved it! I think my chicks are abnormal...

 

[llaaadyel]

When my Purdue Roo was little I used to give him worms that I found in the garden. He would do the same thing, just run around with it and then loose interest. Then one day he found one on his own. I swear you could tell just how proud he was. That one he ate. Go figure.

llaady

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

Quote:
Haha! That is hilarious!

 

[MetalSmitten]

this is kinda gross, but try chopping the worm in half first for that one - it exposes the guts (their favorite part!) and sometimes that's all it takes for a chick to realize what the wiggly thing is

 

[SDR]

mshirk, hope you don't mind me jumping in your thread with a related question?

Went to TSC today to pick up some more chick feed and thought while I was there would get a package of the dry mealworms too. There was a hand written sign above the mealworms that said "Do not feed to Chickens until they are on layer feed". Is there something to this or is somebody full of you know what?

I passed on the mealworms. Since I had a big bag of chick crumbles I wasn't in the mood to answer to any chick Nazi going through checkout.