guinea treats

[Danisclan]

I am getting my first keets on the first, seems like i have been waiting forever. I was curious what to give the guineas as treats?

 

[mnferalkitty]

meal worms and chicken scratch

 

[lovin my birds]

I give mine mealworm, fresh grass, they love crickets that I buy at the pet store, and I dont know if you have it where you live but we call it pickleweed. It looks a lot like clover and has little pickle looking things on it. I live in Missouri and it grows everywhere. My keets just go crazy over it. They like it better than anything. It probably has a different name but thats what we call it.

 

[PeepsCA]

Many use white millet as a treat, and fresh greens like spinach, romaine lettuce, chard, and even alfalfa sprouts or any other type of sprout. Whatever you decide to give them be sure you provide grit too, so the keets can grind up/digest the treats and not get impacted.

 

[Danisclan]

Thank you so much for all your answers! I am new to guineas and want to do it right. What is the grit you talked about? Do you get that at a feedstore? How much do you give them? I want to be a hatch a holic also when I get it all figured out!

 

[JLeigh]

My adult guineas LOVE dried mealworms. They're expensive, so I use them as a training treat/reward. Live crickets, but take my advice and only dole out a few of those at a time, depending on how many guineas you have. But IMHO, live crickets are cheap entertainment for me. It's fun to watch. Chickens too by the way. My guineas never went wild for white millet or chicken scratch though. Too bad because both are cheap. Oh well.

 

[PeepsCA]

Thank you so much for all your answers! I am new to guineas and want to do it right. What is the grit you talked about? Do you get that at a feedstore? How much do you give them? I want to be a hatch a holic also when I get it all figured out!

If you are going to start giving baby keets treats right away you can start out with chick grit, it's small like coarse sand and usually granite... some feed stores carry/stock it, but you may have to have them order it for you. Parakeet grit works for young keets too, and you can usually get that at any major pet store that carries bird supplies, you want just plain grit tho, not the type with oyster shell added, the keets don't need the extra calcium at this point. Some people use a handful of small fine gravel/coarse sand from the side of their driveway, which I have done (but I like the actual grit because it's cleaner, lol).

For the young keets you can put a small feeder of it in their brooder, but watch to see they do not fill up on it... if they seem to be eating too much of it or obsessed with it, I usually just put it in when I give them treats then take it out shortly after they've had all some, then I'll sprinkle a little on top of their food. If it's an open dish they will dust bathe in it, kicking it everywhere lol.

As they mature regular poultry grit works fine, and most feed stores typically sell poultry grit. Tractor Supply has it. My older keets 6wks or older have free choice to regular poultry grit, they seem less interested in obsessing over it and just take what they need when they need it.