Good treats for three-week-old chicks - any thoughts?

[lisahaschickens]

I am trying to make friends with my three-week-old chicks and the progress is very slow. I have had some recommendations to just grab them and hold them until they calm down. I have also heard that treats really help. However, I've read that many treats at this young age can cause diarrhea and pasting up.

Any thoughts?

 

[Country Guy John]

I give mine crickets. Its what they would in get in the natural environment raised by thier mom.

 

[lisahaschickens]

thank you for the suggestion. I did forget to mention that I do give them earthworms already, which they seem to enjoy. I will definitely consider crickets as well

 

[chickbea]

Quote:
I've found that it works better to just sit on the floor with my chicks, and let them move around me, climb on me, etc. You can hold your hands out to them and they may climb on board to eat. It's a bit frightening for them to be grabbed - I would imagine it triggers an instinctual fear that they have been grabbed by a predator. Some of my chickens have gotten way too friendly - my Dorothy was always sneaking into the house if anyone left the door open!

 

[Wynette]

THey love yogurt, and it's very good for them. At first, they may tromp through it, not realizing it's food. But give them a little time - it's one of my chickens' favorite all-time treats, and it's so good for them, and nice & soft/easy to digest for chicks.

ETA: make sure they are getting chick grit; they won't need it for yogurt, but any foods with more substance (such as worms or crickets or even cooked oatmeal) they'll need the grit.

 

[agirly4chicks]

I read on another post that the yougurt should be sugar free in the plain flavor. I could not find sugar free plain is strawberry sugar free fine?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
You don't need to look for "sugar free". It's sold as plain, low-fat yogurt. You want to avoid the yogurts with artificial sweeteners, which I believe many of the sugar free yogurts would have artificial sweeteners to make up for the lack of sugar.
Chopped hard boiled egg is another good treat for the little ones.

 

[TXmom]

Quote:
Check the label on that sugar-free yogurt...it probably has nutrasweet or something, which I assume would be very bad for a chicken. I use Dannon All-Natural Plain yogurt...it comes in a bigger tub, not single-serve, and it's under all the flavored yogurts in my store.

Treats: Crickets, Mealworms, Crumbled Hard-boiled Eggs, and Parakeet Grit (mine think that's a special treat!).

 

[JenMT]

Hi Lisa, we spoke last week about the avacado as a treat and I also had a sick chick you advised me about. I'm a new chick mom too, my girls are 4 weeks old now, and I make it a point to hold every one of them at for at least a minute or two everyday. I use my "baby talk" voice to announce my presence and say "Hi girrrrls". They are starting to recognize my voice and approach me when I enter their room. I read here on this site to place both hands slowly into the brooder until one of them approaches me or I slowly move toward one of them. Then, place one hand over both wings and one hand under the breast with 2 fingers between the legs so they can't squirm away or get dropped. I lift her up to my tummy or my chest and stroke her back, head, neck and wings and talk gently to her. Some of them didn't like it at first and 2 of my RIR's still don't. My BR's and BO's seem to fight over who gets to be held first now and once I even rocked one of the Buff Orpingtons to sleep. I think that the more we work with them the more they get used to us. Good luck...you are doing great!

 

[Lanissa86]

Go to Petsmart or Petco and get you some Meal Worms!! or Go Dig some worms up in the Garden! I am telling you, this makes chicks love you so fast!!! They cry when you walk away! Well, my birds are 21 weeks now and they hate seeing me walk inside! I spoiled them with lots of worms, crickets, fruits and veggies! lol