Is it okay for chicks to eat bugs around the age of 2 weeks? They're also pretty jumpy.

[chickzndahood]

So when my chicks were two weeks old, I let them out in my yard a bit and one of them ate a rollie pollie. Are they too young to eat them yet? Can they get sick and die?

They're also extra irritable today. They were really skittish. Whenever I'd say something in my normal voice, they would freak out, run to the corner and freeze.

 

[alleyboballey]

My girls are around 3 weeks old and they just had a couple hours outside, I think it's fine.I don't know much about this but I thought the Mother Hen would let their babies rummage around after a couple days of hatching. Maybe they're just mad because they have to go back inside? Haha

 

[MontanaDolphin]

My 6 baby Barred Rocks were born on a Wednesday, I bought them on Thursday, and I gave them bugs on Friday. They were 2 1/2 days old. They are now almost 5 weeks. So no, it won't hurt them, as long as they have grit. And since you say your chick ate it outside, I'm sure it got some. Those first bugs they got were pill bugs...a.k.a. roly polies (which by the way are a type of woodlice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidiidae.) In fact, they were their favorite treat until I gave them their first worm!

I have learned since joining this forum a month ago, that everyone has their opinions on pretty much everything, and those opinions are not always the same. When the chicks are with their mama hen, she doesn't make them only eat chick starter. They eat bugs, and lots of them. As long as you offer them grit, they can eat pretty much anything that wiggles (although I have learned mine won't touch ants or millipedes, and hard cased beetles just get played with)!

 

[debid]

I brood outdoors so any bug small enough to get through hardware cloth becomes a snack. I also have them go on little field trips when it isn't too windy or raining and they scratch up all sorts of things. I guess I'm pretty far from the plastic bubble approach. I do offer grit from the start -- our driveway is crushed granite scrap so there is a plentiful supply. My previous batch of chicks was raised during a massive cicada hatch and they ate so many cicadas... I put them through a worming treatment in their second fall because parasitic worms are a hazard of eating insects and worms.