Feeding chicks treats

[saysfaa]

Ive been told and read that we should be careful what we give and how often because they can get fat. I have been mindful of the amount and what I give my 4 chickens.
When Pepper my rooster starts crowing early in the morning he and Rosie get let out of the coop and each get about 1/2 a cup of fresh corn.So do the other 2. He stops crowing and I go back to sleep. Lol. At our dinnertime I give them the corn and any leftover fruits or veggies or pasta, again in small amounts.
Is that OK? Every 2-4 days I toss dried mealworms around so they have to search for them.
Any other ideas??

Half a cup of corn per day each is about 3/4 of their diet. That is way too much of a food that is too low in protien and various other nutrients.. A tablespoon is about 10% of their diet and that is about the maximum recommended for all their treats. That still isn't as nutritious as just their feed but it is at least a reasonable amount of the nutritionally balanced feed.

Other ideas: fresh greens

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Scrambled eggs, cut grass, and watermelon on hot days.

birds will absolutely DESTROY watermelon - its mostly liquid, electrolytes, some fiber and carbs - but mostly water - so you can iffer comparatively large pieces w/o destroying their diet, unlike corn or BOSS.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Ive been told and read that we should be careful what we give and how often because they can get fat. I have been mindful of the amount and what I give my 4 chickens.
When Pepper my rooster starts crowing early in the morning he and Rosie get let out of the coop and each get about 1/2 a cup of fresh corn.So do the other 2. He stops crowing and I go back to sleep. Lol. At our dinnertime I give them the corn and any leftover fruits or veggies or pasta, again in small amounts.
Is that OK? Every 2-4 days I toss dried mealworms around so they have to search for them.
Any other ideas??

EACH???? Twice a day?

The general recommend is that scratch/treats not exceed 10% of a birds daily diet, by weight. Thumb rule is 1/4# complete ration per adult bird as an average - 100g.

10% of that works out to .4 oz or 10g, which is roughly a level tablespoon. 16 Tbsp in a cup, so you are offering them 4x the recommended maximum amount, twice daily!

Suspect that if I were to take your birds out back and butcher, I'd find significant quantities of subcutaneous fat, heavy fat deposits around the organs, and possibly the start of fatty liver sindrome.

Yes, I suggest you cut it to 1/4 cup, total for all four birds, once daily. Your kitchen scraps, assuming they are green veggie tops, stems, peels, etc are just fine. I would avoid the pasta, enriched or otherwise, unless you skipped the corn treat that morning.

 

[Sally PB]

I have not bothered to train my chickens, but I suppose you could use any call along with any treats and over time the chickens would associate your call with treats to eat.

I have the "Chickie Snack" song that I sing when I bring out a plate of mash (their food mixed with water). They make an "OOOO!!" sound and come running. DH laughed and said, "They know what that means!"

 

[avjudge]

I am wondering what treats might be okay for 7 week old chicks

I started giving my chicks a few berries (frozen/thawed) as I made my own breakfast when they were just a week or two old. The raspberries were the most popular - I'd just give one, a couple blueberries cut in half, a chopped up strawberry or blackberry maybe, not much at all, & just a small fraction of the quantity of chick starter they ate.

Not only did they all go for the raspberry, but then they played football (rugby??), with the first to grab it running around the box with her 5 mates giving chase & grabbing bits. I have some super cute video!

 

[Granny23]

EACH???? Twice a day?

The general recommend is that scratch/treats not exceed 10% of a birds daily diet, by weight. Thumb rule is 1/4# complete ration per adult bird as an average - 100g.

10% of that works out to .4 oz or 10g, which is roughly a level tablespoon. 16 Tbsp in a cup, so you are offering them 4x the recommended maximum amount, twice daily!

Suspect that if I were to take your birds out back and butcher, I'd find significant quantities of subcutaneous fat, heavy fat deposits around the organs, and possibly the start of fatty liver sindrome.

Yes, I suggest you cut it to 1/4 cup, total for all four birds, once daily. Your kitchen scraps, assuming they are green veggie tops, stems, peels, etc are just fine. I would avoid the pasta, enriched or otherwise, unless you skipped the corn treat that morning.

I did not mention that at the moment my small backyard is devoid of anything for these guys to find. We have no grass...its all dirt. With the drought here in So. Calif its just dead. The chickens spend all day searching but there isn't much to find, trust me I've looked too. When I feed them the corn they attack it as tho they haven't eaten in days.
I do provide them with the chicken starter too.
When do I need to change the diet? My rooster is about 13-15 wks and my 3 hens are 12 wks, 11 wks and 8 wks now.
If what I posted still makes you feel like Im overfeeding then I will cut it way back as you suggested. I am not raising these chickens for food, they are pets.
Thank you for your advice!

 

[Granny23]

Half a cup of corn per day each is about 3/4 of their diet. That is way too much of a food that is too low in protien and various other nutrients.. A tablespoon is about 10% of their diet and that is about the maximum recommended for all their treats. That still isn't as nutritious as just their feed but it is at least a reasonable amount of the nutritionally balanced feed.

Other ideas: fresh greens

I responded to U Stormcrow about my yucky backyard. Hopefully I can remedy that soon. Thank you for your advice.☺

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I did not mention that at the moment my small backyard is devoid of anything for these guys to find. We have no grass...its all dirt. With the drought here in So. Calif its just dead. The chickens spend all day searching but there isn't much to find, trust me I've looked too. When I feed them the corn they attack it as tho they haven't eaten in days.
I do provide them with the chicken starter too.
When do I need to change the diet? My rooster is about 13-15 wks and my 3 hens are 12 wks, 11 wks and 8 wks now.
If what I posted still makes you feel like Im overfeeding then I will cut it way back as you suggested. I am not raising these chickens for food, they are pets.
Thank you for your advice!

I used to live in Texas, I can appreciate. Couple suggestions, which you should feel free to disregard. You can consider building grazing frames and try to maintain them. The benefit of course is that it will keep the chickens from destroying the fresh sprouted greens as they are getting started. Disadvantages come from cost and maintenance.

Second, given the ages of those birds you should probably swap to buying 40 or 50 lb bags of all flock or flock raiser instead of the starter feed. The nutrition may actually improve. Purina's does. Free choice oyster shell on the side for your layers.

Third, you can scatter your all flock or flock raiser or whatever complete feed you settle on just like scratch and your chickens will happily race around gobbling it up. Mine do.

 

[Granny23]

Great ideas!!! Ive been wanting to plant greens for them but was worried about them getting to them before they are big enough. They've already had a blast destroying my husbands little gerbera daisy garden because of the cool dirt. It's fenced now. The guy that built my coop told me that the chicken would show me what plants to fence them out of.

 

[saysfaa]

They will act like they are starving even if they have an abundance of food and a rich environment.

I were in your shoes, instead of corn, I would add clutter as in things for them to hop onto, to fly up on, to hide under, to sit behind. There are several threads and articles with lots of ideas, ask if you need help finding them. I don't have time to look just now. Also, at least someplace with loose dirt to take dust baths in, a barrel if you have to.

There are two kinds of grazing frames... one kind they can dig in, the other has a screen over it so they can eat the plants as they get tall enough. Both are good; different reasons. I tend to think grass when I hear grazing but other good options are radishes, chard, clover, beans, ...