Chicks eating down?

[Fruit Juice]

My chicks are growing up and starting to lose thier down, and they go CRAZY over a little piece of down

. They chase after it and eat it. Is this normal? is it bad for them?

 

[chickenguysmom]

Mine do it too!. I wouldn't want to eat feathers but they do eat some strange stuff.

 

[WilczenskiFarm]

bump - i'd like to know - getting chicks in a couple of weeks!

 

[JewellFarm]

Mine did the same thing. Seems to be perfectly normal for them, LOL.

 

[cmom]

It's normal.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

High in protein and very good for them.

 

[GAchick]

I don't think you can worry about the normal natural things in the environment. Ya' can't watch 'em 24/7, so keep the obviously dangerous things away, and don't fret too much about down, and dirt, and grass, and other things. Worry about hawks, and snakes, and cocci, and worms, and heat, and water, and fresh food. That's plenty to worry about.

 

[nhchickmom]

Mine did it too! How funny and strange. It was quite amazing to literally watch them play keep away with the coveted down.

 

[Ben Rogers]

I've been paying a lot of attention to my chicks since I read this thread. I've noticed that there is a *lot* of molting down and *none* of it is in the bedding.

I watched some of my chicks deliberately pick down off of each other and themselves.

And while holding one of my chicks, I tugged a little piece of down out of her feathers and she immediately pecked it out of my grasp and ate it.

I think this is totally normal and something they do to supplement their own diet.

 

[HorseCrazyy]

Completely normal