Do I have the pickiest chickens on the planet?

[joan1708]

They won't eat pellets, strawberries, scrambled eggs, lettuce, asparagus, apples or yogurt. They won't drink out of a beak-time waterer. The only things I've seen them eat is 50/50 layer crumbles / chick start, dried mealworms, scratch, plum tree leaves.

I'm a little worried about them eating their eggs. The guy I got them from thought one was laying and I haven't seen an egg since I got them, 2 1/2 weeks ago. Another post says chickens can eat the eggs without leaving a trace. Is that true? Does anyone else have picky chickens?

 

[gryeyes]

Any change in their environment can put them off laying, as much as three, four weeks. If they are new to you and your property, that's a HUGE change.

Patience, grasshopper.

Also, hens can indeed eat eggs without leaving any traces, but usually there is SOME sign. I had a really clever hen who could do it, though. I had to get roll-out nests to stop the behavior.

 

[galanie]

Agree with gryeyes. For now they may be picky because they've not had a variety to eat before and don't realize it's all food. As with the eggs, give them time.

 

[joan1708]

Thank you all! AND I'm so excited. I found my first egg tonight! So, I don't have an egg eater after all! Maybe they will start eating other foods soon as well.

 

[ClareScifi]

According to Zonya, the famous nutritionist on PBS, you have to introduce picky children and husbands to a dish 11 times before they will start to like it. I think the same is true of chickens. Mine would not eat lettuce for a long time, but now they love it (but not iceberg). They would eat only green greens, shunning dark red ones, but now they like dark red ones. They wouldn't touch oystershell, but now they do.

 

[FeatherPainter]

Mine wouldn't eat worms untill they started laying, I guess they knew that they needed the protein.

 

[Gargoyle]

Patience, grasshopper.

And if you can't get grasshoppers, go to the pet store and buy live crickets- I get them at PetSmart (the large size crickets) for 11¢ each. Mine are pretty picky, but they go wild for crickets.

 

[AmyLM]

I guess I should be glad that BOTH of my groups of chickens will eat anything... and everything I put before them... heck.. they even try to eat things that arnt food... like my bracelet, necklace... and oh yes.. my toes sticking out of my berkenstocks.

 

[Gargoyle]

heck.. they even try to eat things that arent food... like my bracelet, necklace... and oh yes.. my toes sticking out of my berkenstocks.

What makes you think your toes aren't food?

 

[aoxa]

Mine won't eat yoghurt until you sprinkle their food on it.

Mine like spinach more than lettuce, but they all like greens. If there is grass for them to munch on, they won't eat as much lettuce/spinach as they did.

Try millet (it's a seed). I have not had a hen/chick that didn't go crazy over it.