day old chicks.. what do i do with food?

[chwoey]

Me and my mom are confused, we have read that you should put newspapers down, and put food on the newspapers.
Now, do u just sprinkle the food or have the food in an appropriate food thing?

 

[lisahaschickens]

This is a very common question on here.

You should have shavings or other bedding in the bottom of your brooder so that it's not slippery for the, otherwise you could encounter leg problems. For the first day, you can lay papertowels or newspaper on top of the bedding material and sprinkle some chick food on it. Also, you must have food in a chick feeder at the same time. The sprinkled food is just to get them to start eating until they find the real feeder. Mine found the feeder within an hour. As soon as they are all eating from the feeder, you must remove the paper because it can get slippery and cause leg problems.

 

[chwoey]

We read that u should put layers of newspaper over the bedding and remove one paper a day?

Should we only have one layer and take it away as soon as they find how to get food?

 

[lisahaschickens]

that's the way I did it and it worked beautifully. That was what I read in my research ahead of time and I think it is a common way to do it.

The only reason for the paper is to help them find the food and start eating as quickly as possible. As soon as they know how to use the real feeders, you don't need the paper anymore.

 

[CityClucks]

I put paper towels down over the pine shavings for the first few days, but I always put their chick starter in a feeder and sprinkle just a little around the edge of the feeder on the paper towels. They have no trouble eating from the feeder and they aren't pooping on their food if it's in the feeder.

 

[Marlinchaser]

Actually it is suggested that you NOT use newspaper, it is slippery and can result in Spraddle Leg, but paper towels is good, you want to cover the shavings, so that the chicks can only get to food for first couple days, or they could gourge on shavings instead of food, after a couple days they will recognize food vs. shaving, and you can remove the paper towels.

 

[lisahaschickens]

I agree - I use paper towels because newspaper is supposed to be really slippery and bad, but I know lots of people use newspaper so I didn't want to knock it.

Mine pecked at the shavings some and still do (at 10.5 weeks old), but it was never a problem. I used the paper towels for only one day at the recommendation of my reading.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Yup, what he said! Newspaper is not only slippery, but the ink makes them dirty looking. Somebody here, whose name I have forgotten,

, puts down 5 layers of paper towels over the shavings and removes one layer per day. By that time, they know not to eat the shavings. Makes cleanup easy.

I put an old flat plastic container in with them, with food sprinkled around it for the first day. They find the dish really fast.

 

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

OK, here is what i did. The first day they came we put newspaper on half of the brooder so if they didn't want to be on it then they could go to the side with just shavings. Then we put the food in a our normal chick feeder AND sprinkled food on the paper. The next moring we took the newspaper off and they had their food in just the normal feeder. I think paper towels probably wouldn't work because they could pull at it and eat it, but i dont know i've never tried it. Everything worked out great! No problems at all! I think you should do that, it works well!! Also my chicks never got dirty from the ink. AND my chickens are about 6 and a half weeks old and have ABSOLUTELY NO leg problems, or any problems they are just GREAT!!!

 

[Chickiezz]

You can do either way but do NOT use newspaper because it is bad for them and very slippery and could lead to Spraddle Leg. I suggest paper towels instead. But I think it is best to have food in a food dish, instead of spread out, but that is my opinion. Good Luck!