Emergency chick feed

[littlechicks02]

Hi, as probably guessed from the title I am in desperate need of chick feed and I can't get any until the next week, is there any day emergency chick starters out there?

Thankyou,

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of times I don’t have “ideal” conditions, I have conditions “I deal” with. Sounds like you may be there. Ideally you would have a perfectly balanced feed to start and raise the chicks on. For thousands of years people that hatched and raised chicks did not have that. If you could tell us a bit about your circumstances we may be able to be more specific in suggestions.

My broody hens will take her chicks to the feeding stations a couple of times a day, but most of the time they are out foraging for most of what they eat. She teaches them to eat small gravel for use as grit, dirt for minerals, as well as bits of vegetation. If she finds a creepy crawly she’ll rip that apart for them. But I have decent forage (a variety of things for them to eat) plus not everyone has a broody hen to teach them.

Dad used to raise store-bought chicks on nothing but corn meal. That’s going to really upset some people on this forum, they just won’t believe it is possible. But he did it. Then at about three weeks of age he’d turn them loose and let them forage for themselves. These were not show quality chicks being fed a special diet to win ribbons at the fair. These chicks were hatchery chicks destined to lay eggs and provide meat to feed a farm family. Dad hardly ever lost a chick doing it that way but he had different circumstances than most of us, including me. I don’t do it that way.

If you are feeding them much of anything other than chicken feed or grains already ground up they should have grit to help their gizzard grind it up. If you can give them access to the ground they should find their own grit. If they are in a brooder you can use a coarse sand or just get dirt from the ground. You can also buy chick grit at the feed store but if that were an option you’d probably buy feed and would not have asked the question. I’ve been known to pick small bits of rock from my driveway and give them that. Sand and gravel banks in streams are another great source.

So what can you do in an emergency? Avoid high salt and high sugar foods so most breakfast cereals are obviously out, but any kind of ground grains will work. If you use flour you might want to wet it first to make a paste or much better for flour bake it into bread first. They can eat practically anything you can eat, meat or vegetable. Chopping it up into small pieces can help a lot. I’d stay away from high fat content or highly spiced foods. If you normally eat it raw they will probably eat it raw. If you normally cook it, then probably cook it first though ground or chopped meat can work either raw or cooked.

I’d try to give them as much variety as I could. Feed everything in moderation. There is a fair chance they will not eat everything you offer them. They can be funny that way. Keep it cleaned up so it doesn’t get moldy.

Ideally you will soon get chicken feed and things will be great. But over the weekend or otherwise short-term you can get by without damaging them. Good luck!