Chick treats

[Sarah the chicken girl]

Hi I have 6 6 week old chicks they are now outside and loving it, eating grass and amusingly catching flies, but I was wondering if it was ok to start giving them treats like kitchen scraps. Sparingly of course.

 

[eggbert420]

Yes they will love it.

 

[Sarah the chicken girl]

Yes they will love it.

Thanks just didn't want to start if it could be harmful this early.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I waited till eight weeks before offering anything other than Start & Grow feed. But I put them outside at 5 1/2 weeks, where they had access to grass, weeds, worms and bugs. So I offered them Chick Grit granite to digest those goodies.
At 8 weeks I gave them scratch grains as a treat once a day, what they consumed in 10/15 minutes.
I would probably wait till 10 weeks before offering scratch grains for my next flock as I think that the complete nutrition in feed is critical for proper development of the egg laying tract.
One of my 5 hens, the last to lay, laid many soft shelled eggs and weird eggs in the beginning and still lays 3/5 a month at nearly 15 months.
Ideally in my opinion, chicks should get nothing but feed for 16 weeks. But that would be like telling children they can't have chocolate covered ice cream till they are 16.
Feed them treats when you think you should, just very limited. GC

 

[Wilmer Gehman]

i am sure you could give them a small amount of healthy treats such as vegies or fruits. I gave my chicks tomatoes and blueberries and they loved them, they also love clover.

 

[Sarah the chicken girl]

Thanks im thinking a small offering once a week as I have a pony who eats veggie scraps aswell think he would be disappointed if he was losing significant amount. Lol. I don't use chick grit as the soil is quite gravelly so they have enough grit in there and previously when in brooder I used builders sand.