Chicken 🐓 scratch! (7 week old flock)

[Chicklady707]

Hello! Just curious if my flock is old enough to start feeding treats such as chicken scratch? I have been giving them mealworms, watermelon, strawberry greens, grass clippings, frozen peas (thawed), carrot peels, and cucumber peels. I was thinking of purchasing a bag of chicken scratch and adding mealworms and BOSS to give sparingly as a treat but wondering if they are too young yet at 7 weeks. They do have a pile of tiny granite pieces in their run for grit (see last pic). Any input greatly appreciated!

 

[OreoH]

I think they're old enough. You can start as early as 5 weeks, but it's better to wait because you want them to eat mainly the chicken feed. Your chicks seem to have a very colorful diet and I think they would enjoy scratch . Keep in mind that all treats need to be less than 10% of their entire diet. If they only had scratch as a treat that would be about half a tablespoon per chick for now.

 

[Kiki]

Your birds will be better off if you don't feed them scratch or s of the current treats you are feeding them.

Everything that you're feeding besides the complete balance chicken feed is taking away from them receiving a balanced diet.

 

[OreoH]

I would also like to add that chicken scratch isn't really a balanced diet for the chickens. It has foods that can be healthy, but it isn't calculated to provide what chickens need like the commercial pellets or feed are. It has nutrients in it from the contents, but the feed is much more important.

 

[RoosterML]

Your birds will be better off if you don't feed them scratch or s of the current treats you are feeding them.

Everything that you're feeding besides the complete balance chicken feed is taking away from them receiving a balanced diet.

Well aren’t you just a grumpy party pooper!