grit with calcium

[shoodakooda]

I'm confused about chicks and grit. I picked up gravel and grit at Walmart because I wanted to give my 3 wk old RIR's treats. I thought i read they shouldn't have calcium which this has. Should I not feed it to them?
Thanks!

 

[HEChicken]

Grit is really not a treat for them. All birds need to swallow small stones to store in their gizzard, and these help them to grind up their food. Grit is usually crushed limestone and serves this purpose for them. I've never heard of them adding calcium to grit but if the stuff you bought has calcium, then it might be advisable to wait until they are of laying age to give it to them.

If they free range they will probably find all the grit they need. And, if you keep them in a pen but feed them only commercial chicken food, the need for grit is much less also. However if you are going to offer them kitchen scraps or other treats, they need to have grit available. They will only eat it when they need to though - they won't treat it as a treat.

 

[elmo]

The grit you picked up at Walmart is probably finch grit, or some such thing. The other commenter is correct: you don't want to offer calcium supplementation to chicks.

You can get regular granite grit at the feed store and grind it up in a mortar and pestle to make grit small enough for chicks. That's what I do.