gave chicks tiny worms

[grammym]

just gave my ten babies two tiny earthworms and what fun to watch. at first they didn't know what to do with the squirmy thing, but then one picked it up and off to the races we went. they ran all around the brooder and chased the one with the worm, the worm got dropped, picked up by another then the race went. i'm sure glad i wasn't the worm. how much free fun i had watching them.

 

[Michael Apple]

That may be entertaining, but if your chicks end up with cecal or capillary worms from eating earthworms, you'll wish you hadn't fed them to your chicks.

 

[Avian breeder]

Try meal worms. Those are safer than earth worms.

 

[missnu01]

I gave mine earthworms, it didn't seem to cause any issue...
It was terribly hilarious. Looks like chick football. This one has it, no now this other one and he's running in circles with it...then another jumps up and grabs it out of the first ones mouth...so on and so forth.

If the chicks were being brooded by their mother they would be outside eating earthworms everyday...so I'm not too terribly worried about it myself.

 

[Michael Apple]

Try meal worms. Those are safer than earth worms.

Good alternative. Even so, in moderation. A starter/grower ration contains adequate protein, and too much protein can cause crop impaction in young chicks.

 

[grammym]

OH NO! I thought that it would be ok since if they were outside they would be eating things like this. Guess I won't do that again, since I've been lucky so far with these chicks and haven't lost any.

 

[Michael Apple]

Intestinal Parasites in Backyard Chicken Flocks
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm015

 

[grammym]

Intestinal Parasites in Backyard Chicken Flocks
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm015

Thank you for this information. I had read things such as this, but guess I forgot it all when I saw those tiny earthworms and thought they would be a good size for the chicks. I'm going to just stick to their chick feed now.

 

[Michael Apple]

Thank you for this information. I had read things such as this, but guess I forgot it all when I saw those tiny earthworms and thought they would be a good size for the chicks. I'm going to just stick to their chick feed now.

You're welcome.

 

[HomesteadDebi]

Glad to read this. We have a worm bed and I had thought that we could feed the worms to the chicks when they got older. Now I know that's a no-no. Thanks for posting this.