Do you add vitamins/electolytes to the baby chicks water?

[chickenmamalp]

I have new chicks and was wondering if it is a good idea to add this to their water and if so for how long?
I picked some up from feed store and you add 1 tsp. to one gallon.(Durvet)

 

[speckledhen]

I never do unless is AviaCharge 2000. Electrolytes can actually kill chicks if you overdose. Never did those. What I usually do is add a couple of teaspoons of organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar with "the mother" (sediment) in it to their waterer. It helps with pasty butt (my home hatched babies never get that, only the ones I've bought at the feedstore, which were shipped). I alternate between that and a pinch of AviaCharge, but usually I leave out the AviaCharge.

If you do add the vitamins with electrolytes, you would only do so for a day or two.

 

[Gonzo]

I usually put a splash of ACV and 1 dose of poly vi sol without iron in their waterers.

 

[JCoogle]

All I use is Poly Visol.

 

[ChickenToes]

If they've had a hard journey, I'll add molasses or honey to their water to perk them up a bit.

 

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

I used it. It was funny, i remember my chickys when they were little, i had a few chicks that were little than the others and when they had a drink of it they would run back and forth, get another drink and keep running back and forth...

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Cooked, filtered honey is safe.

Raw unfiltered honey contains bacteria that can kill, infant animals and infant humans with poor digestive and immune systems.

Safest carb sources are Agave (low glycemic and very safe) and light corn syrup. Sugar third and honey after that and raw honey not for infant anything.

 

[Akane]

Raw unfiltered honey is wonderful stuff. The warning is on all of it because it is the only source of infant botulism but the odds of actually getting botulism are probably less than the odds of getting food poisoning from meat you've cooked for your family. We had bees growing up and ate honey combs and raw honey all the time. I will not touch that "sugar goo" they sell in stores. It's been filtered and treated to the point it's flavorless and lacking most of the benefits of real honey. You might as well give sugar water. I get honey from a local farm and use it for all my animals including some that subsist largely on honey as a substitute nectar source. It's kind of like comparing your eggs to store bought eggs and then saying you can get salmonella from your flock. Sure you could.... but the odds aren't as high as everyone is afraid of, if things are handled properly and animals are cared for it's even less likely to happen, and the benefits far outweigh the risks.

I do not add vitamins directly to the water of healthy chicks, chickens, or other animals. It's nothing but harmful if they are getting a proper diet. Kind of like when humans macrodose (take much larger amounts than necessary for survival) on vitamins for extended periods of time and then end up with vitamin deficiencies. The body gets used to the level you are getting and you can't lower it. It also puts more stress on everything to remove the excess and you can overdose if they have a reason to drink more than average or you don't follow directions properly. I will give them some things that naturally contain extra vitamins and minerals like acv. Vitamin overdose is pretty much unheard of outside of taking supplements.

 

[GardeNerd]

We did not add vitamins to the water with the two batches of chicks we had. I figured if a mama hen doesn't provide it in her egg or in rearing the chicks, I wasn't going to worry about it. But I don't medicate my kids or myself much either.

 

[speckledhen]

Whatever you do, dont let someone talk you into putting antibiotics in the water. Healthy chicks don't need those. Fresh, clean water is fine.