feeding baby chicks

[LisaP]

This is our first year raising chickens. They are about 3 weeks old now and are growing like crazy. How soon can we start feeding them treats?

 

[BeccaOH]

What kind of treats do you want to do? I generally don't give treats (anything other than regular grower mix) until they are fully feathered. But that is me. I've been raising too many to care about babying them.

I did try some yogurt, soaked oatmeal, and scrambled egg on my very first batch of babies a few years back, but I've never had good luck with any of my chicks (or adults) liking such things. Tend to go to waste (or into their litter).

I've noticed mother hens raising chicks will point them to grass and bugs that the chicks will attempt to peck at. You could try small blades of grass or slices of lettuce.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When they get grit. There are some things they obviously don't need grit to digest, like yogurt, but I think it is best to give them grit before you feed them any treats.

Coarse sand, like construction sand, works well. Don't use play sand, it is too fine and smooth.

You can also get grit at pet shops, usually sold for small birds. Be careful with that. Some of it has a lot of calcium it, which is bad for the chicks. Just read the label before you get it.

A quick story. My wife stunned a wasp and put it in the brooder with two week old chicks. They had a blast playing keepaway with it before they pecked it into eatable chunks. They can be real selfish and greedy with treats. Consider it chick TV.

 

[bantyhen'sfriend]

I feed my chicks forked scrambled eggs. Origionally, I started feeding it because I wanted to add protein to their diet (our normal feedstore was out of starter so we got Agrimaster's 18% rather than the 23% we normally use). The only downside is, now whenever I look in the brooder and I get a bunch of chicks looking at me as if to say "C'mon, lady, where's the good stuff?!?!?!"

I am very well trained, they get a bit of egg before I go to sleep every other night. Even with the normal feed back in the feeder!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

You can feed treats now, as long as you make sure they have grit. I would avoid the larger seeds for now, seeing as they are only 3 weeks old, though.

 

[classicsredone]

bantyhen'sfriend :

I feed my chicks forked scrambled eggs. Origionally, I started feeding it because I wanted to add protein to their diet (our normal feedstore was out of starter so we got Agrimaster's 18% rather than the 23% we normally use). The only downside is, now whenever I look in the brooder and I get a bunch of chicks looking at me as if to say "C'mon, lady, where's the good stuff?!?!?!"

I am very well trained, they get a bit of egg before I go to sleep every other night. Even with the normal feed back in the feeder!

Mine have figured out that I'm their food source. They follow me and let out the loudest, most pathetic cheeps whenever I walk past them. I thought dogs, goats, and horses could be big mooches...they have nothing on chickens!

Forgot to add that I was almost eaten alive when I brought bacon out into the garage. The girls are in a tractor in the garage since they decided to escape the brooder and chill out on top of our worm bin. I've never given them bacon, but as soon as they smelled it they went NUTS. I was really glad they were caged in! They love yogurt, scrambled eggs, sprouts, cortido, and garlic kraut. (Cortido is kind of like kraut...but made with cabbage, shredded carrots, diced onion, and some mild peppers. Mine is lacto-fermented, so I give it to them for the probiotics.)​