Diet for a crossed beak chicken

[LizGio]

Well for the last week or so I've been adding water to a bowl of crumble for everybody and I stand around and make sure Bing gets his share. But I was giving out treats the other day and wanted to hand feed Bing some mealworms. Then I thought to myself oh my God, can he even have these? Can he digest them? Has he been able to get grit on his own? So today I added a handful of chick grit to the mash I only mixed it ever so lightly so it wouldn't sink to the bottom. Do you think this is sufficient? Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It's probably o.k. to add a small amount of grit to the wet feed.
Is he able to eat really well on his own? If not, then you may want to check this out, looks fairly easy to keep up with day to day.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...eeding-what-is-it-and-when-to-use-it.1532744/

 

[3KillerBs]

I have a crossbeak among my cull cockerels and he seems to have been able to get grit, though I too have periodically dropped some sand into the mash. He goes after the treat foods just like the others when the boys get the kitchen scraps.

I'm raising him to the butchering point with the others and have checked him regularly to make sure his crop was full and that he's no bonier than a 4-month cockerel would be expected to be.

His growth is definitely lagging though so I think it will be necessary to butcher him soon. Slow starvation would be a terrible way to die.

 

[Lovely Lettie]

@JustBabyMargo