Chicks and Grit...this is making me crazy!

[triggfamily5]

I don't have chick size grit here, and I don't want to pay the arm and leg they want for grit at our feed store, so mine get construction sand from Home Depot in kitty litter boxes for them to dust bathe in and eat. Works great for grit for my adults and my chicks.

 

[Prodigal son]

I use the sand also but have heard that many pet stores carry fine-grained grit for parrots, etc. I've never checked it out but you might if you've got a pet store near your home.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If you don't have any nearby pet stores that carry canary and/or parakeet grit then just plain old coarse sand will do or even fine gravel you gather up from the yard or a stream bed.

Depending on what you're feeding them though they may not even need grit. If it's something you yourself would need to chew with your teeth to properly eat then they will need grit. If you wouldn't then they wouldn't either. My birds get a quarter to a half a head of green cabbage every day (they're now six weeks old) and rolled oats to encourage them to keep the brooder litter scratched up and I'm not giving them any grit. They can tear the cabbage into bite sized bits with their beaks which is all that cabbage needs. Tougher, coarser foods would need grit.

 

[ravenseye57]

I started giving my chicks cooked egg and a box of sandy dirt from the yard when they were one week old on a recommendation that it would help clear up a few cases of pasty butt (from the shipping stress). They loved both and it worked instantly on the pasty butt (along with acidophilus powder in their feed). I've been giving them a few cooked eggs every few days ever since and when they were two weeks old I introduced the chick grit and snipped grass/dandelions from the yard. Our local feed store had chick-sized grit (radish seed sized). They are very lively! My friends who've raised chicks before seem surprised at how active and healthy they are, so I guess I'm doing something right.

 

[fiberart57]

Be careful of the parakeet grit as most of them contain calcium which your chicks do not need at this age. I got some builders' sand and it had all kinds of different sized grit in it. Sand works well as does natural, unpainted aquarium gravel.

I started my chicks on treats young as well; alfalfa hanging so they had to jump and then crickets from the pet store. It's lots of fun to watch the chicks chase crickets! But I also gave them sand for grit.

I would wet down their food first to encourage them eat their fill because sometimes when you first put the sand in there, they'll just eat and eat and eat it.

Mary

 

[BlackBart]

I give mine a dish of dirt, plenty of grit in that and it doesn't cost anything.

 

[windtryst]

Quote:
Exactly! I dump a bag of sand ( untreated) in the run, and in the broody pen. That way the chicks can take it whenever they want...My baby chicks are always raised by a broody hen and she gets them out in the run in about 3 days...they eat all kinds of stuff...

 

[3chimama]

Lots of great info- thanks!

 

[Cindy in PA]

Limestone is a subsitute for oyster shells. I got some at the feed store last year when they changed to that from oyster shells. Definitely not for younger chicks.

 

[ElioraImmanuel]

With the meaties, I just put them outside and they went right to the sand! The layers are still in the house and I give them some play sand and boy oh boy do they go nuts over it!