Feed emergency, please help!

RavenStorm

Songster
11 Years
Jun 1, 2008
361
5
129
Southern CA
Hey peoples, I picked up my week-old chicks on Wednesday and when I did I also bought 3lbs of medicated chick feed. This being my first time, I thought that 3 lbs would be more than enough to last till Monday so that I could go to a feed store. Wrong! They figured out quite easily how to bill out the vast majority of their food and it was lost in the pine shavings. I have to take out the feeder to get them to pay any attention to the stuff on the floor, but I can see that even with their picking they are not filling their crops.

Now to make things worse, my car busted a fuel line on Friday and my friend took it to the shop, but I won't know anything about my car until Monday. I have a small amount of the medicated feed left, but only barely a cup. I rigged up a new feeder that makes it more difficult to bill out their food. Yet I still need some tips on common household food that I might be able to give to them to hold them off. I do not have any grit/sand/pebbles for them and I can't let them free range in my backyard, so what I can feed 1-2 week old chicks that they can actually eat without fear of impacting their crops?

Any tips?
 
Some things I have around the house right now include:

-Stale rice crispies
-Bananas
-Tons of tomatoes from backyard
-yellow corn tortillas
-assorted raw nuts (whole almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, hazel nuts, cashews)
-raisins
-apples
-cantaloupe
-plain oatmeal
-plain rolled barley, oats, and wheat instant breakfast
-nappa cabbage (Chinese cabbage)
-uncooked white rice
-dehydrated potatoes sliced up for hashbrowns
-plain goat's milk yogurt
-store-bought chicken eggs
- 2% organic milk
-cheddar cheese
-beets

I know that older birds can eat all of these things (well, not sure about the dairy except for the yogurt) but what about chicks?
 
Not sure how many chicks you have but a 50/50 mix of milk and feed is something mine
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As young chicks I would not give them this mix regularly as too much calcium under 18 weeks can damage their organs.

But they do need some to grow bones and such. So a weekend/cup full should not matter.

Plus once you mix it(I just took 1/4 cup of each and then used a fork to stir it up) and give it like 3-5 mins it will thicken as the feed absorbs the milk. This paste will keep them from being able to toss the 1 cup you have left onto the ground, double the feed you do have left, and be good for them. Would require more feedings as I wouldn't want the milk to sit out too much/long, but worth the effort.
 
* Coarse cornmeal! ground almonds, crushed dry kitty food, pearled barley, split peas, and brown rice, whole wheat bread crumbs, wild bird food, low/no- salt cottage cheese, baby foods and oatmeal. You can feed chickens wonderfully from the grocery store. It's just really costly! And some things require grinding or steaming.
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(Ed. My girl loves her oatmeal or cornmeal with a spoonful of peanut butter stirred in it.)
 
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I'd be cautious of the nuts, especially when they are younger than 4 weeks.

It seems too many Peanuts will keep a hen from laying. Where as a little bit will get you bigger eggs. Here is the study.
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I say grind up those grains and mix with yoghurt and add crumbled hard boiled egg for the protein. Those little fluffy monsters would eat you if they could get you between their beaks. They eat ALOT!
 

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