Introducing yogurt

[Chieftain]

The Black Jersey Giant chicks are a little over 2 weeks old and growing fast, and I figured it was about time to introduce them to yogurt. The other girls get some daily, so these two need to get up to speed with it too.

I've been putting a small ramekin with a spoonful of yogurt in it for the past two days, but the BJGs just ignore it and look at me like I'm crazy, so today I tried something different. I served up the yogurt, and plopped four fat mealworms on top, The girls snapped up a mealworm coated in yogurt, and they had to get used to the taste for a minute, but it wasn't long before they were chowing down.

My wife bought a small bag of baby spinach at the store, and I've been tearing a few leaves up and tossing those in the pen too. They take right to the dark green, and they fight over the stems like they were big green mealworms! Pretty funny, but the spinach is the first greens I have found that any of the girls would eat. I've tried lettuce and cabbage but neither one was a hit. Spinach is what did the trick, and I suspect they will all be green grass hounds this summer when I can let them out to run in the yard.

 

[nancypo]

I tired a little plain yogurt on the small lid of a coffee cup, they ate it! Not all, but some. I figured since they tolerated it, about 1 1/2 week old, it can't hurt them. A little calcium, plus the natural, live cultures...

 

[Chieftain]

My rule of thumb is to give them as much as they can eat in 10 minutes or so, just to avoid giving them the scoots. From what I have read here at BYC, yogurt cultures are particularly helpful to a chicken's digestion, and the more food they digest the more eggs they produce and the more meat they put on...

The top pic is the garnished dish I put out in the coop this morning for the big girls, and the bottom pic is the BJGs with their heads buried in their yogurt dish this morning. Note the cardboard sandbox next to them...I have a 40 watt brooder lamp over the top of it, so the sand stays nice and warm, and both of them were in there taking dust baths last night when we were locking up the house.

 

[Carpe DiHen]

Yummy

Looks like they love it, I'll have to learn to stomach the mix for my chicks

 

[whillergee]

I put a spoonful of yogurt in with my 4-week-old girls (four of them) this morning, and they mobbed it like they do everything else I introduce them to! The first time I put in a strawberry they eyed it with great suspicion, but discovered in time that it was a tasty treat. I've only given them strawberries and lettuce leaves so far, so I had no idea how the yogurt would go over, but they went wild. As a flock, they seem to be very open-minded about trying different cuisines...

 

[nancypo]

I love the little mini-roost!

 

[Chieftain]

Quote:
So do they...they are too young to roost yet, but the do get up there and sit, goof of and such.