diet diversity

[dnx717]

We have 9 pullets. 4+ weeks old. when do you start giving them scratch or meal worms or anything like that. to date all the "treats" they've gotten are fresh or semi-frozen fruits and some veggies.

 

[evemfoster]

We have 9 pullets. 4+ weeks old. when do you start giving them scratch or meal worms or anything like that. to date all the "treats" they've gotten are fresh or semi-frozen fruits and some veggies.

Chicks can have meal worms from day one. Just pick out the medium sized ones. Although it can be fairly amusing to watch a couple chicks have a tug-a-war over large meal worms. They will eventually stretch out the larger meal worms until they can eat them.

Scratch is a whole different animal. The larger seeds in scratch can be too big for smaller chicks. My chicks couldn't handle the bigger seeds until they were two months old. Those big seeds can be up to 90% of a scratch mix. And be careful when buying scratch some less reputable company's add up to 10% sand to the mix and try to convince the customer that the sand turns the scratch mix into premium scratch mix. Horse pucky, it makes you pay more for a lot less scratch.

 

[the foot]

I keep my chicks in the coop until 12 weeks. Starter/grower and mealworms for a treat. Then I let them out to try natural stuff like greens and seed they can scratch up. I don't feed them commercial scratch feed or grains until they are grown, maybe 20 weeks. I have had several young chickens in the past who got their craw impacted with grains etc., and they eventually had to be sent to the freezer.

Be careful with letting young chickens eat grains.