Chick Starter?

[ChickensAreSweet]

Alfalfa is very high in protein and is good for chickens.

Keep in mind that you want to keep the treats to a minimum as they are growing, as they need a very high protein diet while they are chicks. So I look at treats for chicks as a vitamin source only, so as to not totally rely on the vitamins they have mixed into the feed. I don't want to dilute out their protein/grains, since I want them to gain lots of weight. Some say to keep treats to 10% or less of the feed (but I usually hear this with regards to older birds)...for baby chicks many don't feed treats at all.

Eggshells should only be crushed and given when they are laying.

Sand is OK grit for tiny chicks. When they are older they need to either free range for their grit or be given cherrystone size #3 sharp granite grit from the feed store unless they are on commercial feed alone.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Egg shells are not hard enough to be grit. Also, they are almost pure calcium and too much calcium is not good for growing chicks. Don’t give them egg shells until they are laying.

Scrambled or boiled egg is fine for them. They don’t need grit fort that. Well-cooked oatmeal should be OK but it needs to be well-cooked.

 

[ChaoSS]

I won't overdo the treats. That being said, these are meaties, so I need to restrict their food anyway. Overdoing the lower protein stuff shouldn't be too big a deal, so long as it isn't something that's actually unhealthy for them.


I tried to get some sand for them today, but the stuff at Lowe's said it contained Silica, which I seem to remember was bad for them. I'll just pick up some actual "chick grit" at TSC, I doubt these guys will go through too terribly much of it. Once I get them outside they should be ok, or I'll find them some grit to scatter around the run.

 

[ChaoSS]

Well, I just had the first chick die.... Not sure what happened, it looked a little bit crushed, but I'm not sure if that was before or after it died. They are all nice and warm and don't seem too warm, free access to feed and water, so who knows. It didn't have pasty butt (earlier I had to clean up two of them, but this doesn't seem to have been one of them.

It was a little bit small and runt like, and these were the last chicks from the last order from TSC, so could just be bad luck.


Some one should have told me how much fun it is to watch chicks go crazy over eggs. I just made myself some eggs, and i scrambled one and cooled it off in a bowl, chopped it up pretty small and started putting it in the feeder. There were a couple of them picking at the food, soon as the first piece of egg hit the feeder all hell broke loose. One of them got it and the game of keep away was on. They still haven't quieted down. I got all the egg into the feeder before anyone even noticed that I was doing it, they were so intent on stealing the one piece from the one chick that got the first piece....

Seems like a good way to get these guys to exercise. No way they have heart and leg problems if they do this kind of stuff often enough.

 

[dheltzel]

Silicon is the main ingredient of sand, chick grit maybe too. The danger is that same as for humans, you don't want to inhale too much of it. But play sand for instance must be quite safe because it's intended for kids. I don't think you'll have any problems using play sand for you chicks.

 

[dheltzel]

Well, I just had the first chick die.... Not sure what happened, it looked a little bit crushed, but I'm not sure if that was before or after it died. They are all nice and warm and don't seem too warm, free access to feed and water, so who knows. It didn't have pasty butt (earlier I had to clean up two of them, but this doesn't seem to have been one of them.

It was a little bit small and runt like, and these were the last chicks from the last order from TSC, so could just be bad luck.

Some chicks die and there is nothing anyone can do to make them all live. You try to make things as good as possible and (at least I) kick myself when I make a mistake, but in the end we have to come to grips with this.

Keep an eye on the remaining ones, especially if they seem lethargic or won't eat, you might have a disease problem. If they are all participating in the "run for the egg relay", they are still healthy.

 

[ChaoSS]

Yeah. They seemed kind of lethargic to me, but I don't know, I've never raised chicks, and it didn't occur to me that baby chicks do indeed sleep a lot like pretty much every other baby out there... when I checked them all earlier I moved them from one box to another to make sure that I was checking every single one of them, and they all moved around ok, none of them seemed different than the others. The egg "fight" seems to be dying down, but yeah, they were all going for it pretty well, so I'm not particularly worried.


I don't like not knowing why when they die, but I guess that's just how it works. I'll know if I'm doing something wrong if the rest start having problems, but I don't think they will. Just one of those things.