Has anyone ever done a Treat Chart for baby chicks?

[moonflowers]

Great idea! I keep reading conflicting information and would love to have a treat chart by age to reference while trying to spoil my babies. Now I have gotten worried I shouldn't have taken them outside today because I'm sure they ate grass and flowers but they were SOOO cute in the sunshine

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[Nicola]

yer great ideea i wanna know too

 

[Forgotten Amber]

I too am new to BYC and a new chick mom. I also have been searching the threads for helpful information on treats as well as the treat chart. Everyone has been very helpful and the information is great but I agree that finding it in one place would be very benefitial.

I realize we noobs are asking the seasoned members to put in a bit of work, but is it more work than answering all of our questions in every thread? My thought is that perhaps a new section could be added to the treat chart. Like after the General Opinions section you could add Age appropriate or Starting age.

For my part, I've given my week old chicks just a small amount of raw oatmeal. I hold each grain and let them pick it apart from my fingers. They love it and now I can't stick my hand in the brooder without them running to me. I even started holding regular feed so they didn't think I was just teasing them.

Again, we realize we are asking someone to do more than they already do (and we appreciate all everyone does!) but it would be a great help to us.

Amber

 

[farmin'chick]

Quote:
With the broody - under a hen without the broody - in your brooder box

 

[birdlovin gal]

I agree, I am new and have 1 week old chicks. Today I attempted to give the girls cooked oatmeal and they weren't interested. I am going to try & give them some boiled egg yolk tonight.

My DH thinks they are bored, and wants to give them toys! Maybe a cat toy.......?

 

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

Well I'm a newbie (who started this thread) so I am still trying to learn since we have to guess at what chicks can safely eat... but so far the successful treats have been:

boiled mashed egg
raw oats (Quaker old fashioned)
chopped up grapes
yogurt

Mine are about 3 weeks old.

 

[Bridgette1221]

I've only fed mine the eggs off of that chart but I just chopped them really small, oh and yogurt, I gave them that. I also took them out for about 15 minutes the other day and let them pick at the ground... they loved it. Oh I did grate a very small amount of carrot once and sprinkled a few pieces of it in with them and they seemed to like it too. I still want to know about crickets. When could I give them a couple of the small, which are tiny, crickets to chase around?

 

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

I've heard you can give them tiny crickets at about 2-3 weeks... but it's only what I've read. Mine started spending their days outside at 2 1/2 weeks and snap up any bugs they find...

 

[applefalls]

Last week I caught a tiny cricket and put it in the brooder with our chicks. They enjoyed chasing and catching it, but none of them actually ate the cricket. It ended up drowning in their water and I threw it out.
(...and here I thought I had found a great use for all the crickets in my basement!)

This week my son gave our eight chicks some torn up grapes (the chicks are two weeks old). They fought over the grapes so much that I thought it best to hold off a little bit longer on treats. No need pitting chick against chick!

I, too, would really appreciate a chick-specific treats list. To be safe, I'll stick to grower-feed in the meanwhile...

 

[bucketgirl]

Hi All - I just picked up my first chicks ever - 4 Buff Orpingtons and 2 Barred Rock. I'm also interested in figuring out what to treat the chicks with. They are obsessed with scratching the bedding and eating tiny bits of the pine shavings. I'm distressed about it but they seem to be in fine form with healthy droppings. I figure the only way to get them off of it is to give them something tastier to scratch for.

I gave them some grass yesterday and that was fairly popular - moreso with the barred rock than buffs.

Tonight I'm planning on giving them some oatmeal.

I'm with the other people - a chickie treat chart would be awesome. Barring that though, is there anything that is ok for grown chickens that would be lethal for chicks? Apple seeds maybe? High acid fruit?

Thanks for a great forum with wonderful pictures. Keeps me sane while I'm stuck at work away from my peeps.