is it okay to give chicks veggie pulp?

[chickiefun]

I juice daily and therefore I have lots of fine ground veggie pulp. Mainly carrots, kale, celery, spinach, beet and apple. I was thinking it might be fun for the chicks if i gave them some to peck at. Thought?

 

[lazy gardener]

I'd like to hear some experienced chicken keepers weigh in on this question, but this would be my take on it.

I would get them well started on their starter first, that's going to have a good nutrient balance for them. Then, if you want to give them a little bit, I'd keep it at less than 10% of their diet. It's essential that they get grit if you give them anything other than their chick starter, and my preference is to give them grit even if they don't get anything other than starter.

 

[Ridgerunner]

They’d love it and it will be good for them in moderation. Just don’t overdo it.

I don’t know if your juicer actually grinds or if it just crushes. If it is really ground hey don’t need grit, but if it is crushed so some of the fiber and membrane is still in strips or chunks, they probably should have grit.

A word of warning. If you feed them beet pulp, no they are not pooping blood.

 

[chickiefun]

Its a centrifugal juicer so it basically grates into fine pieces. In was given the chicks with starter and just bought my own huge bag from our feed store they only had one brand/size... medicated starter. Im not sure what grit is or how long to feed the starter but after reading some posts it sounds 18weeks?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens don’t have teeth to grind their food. They do that in their gizzard. They eat pebbles and large sand particles to use in the gizzard to do the grinding. The pebbles and sand is called grit. Chicken feed has already been ground up so they can handle that, but if they eat anything that has not been ground up, they need grit.

You can often buy chick grit at the feed store. Since they are very young they can’t handle the regular grit for adults. Those chunks are too big, so make sure it is chick grit.

You have other options. Get some coarse sand, like construction sand, and give that to them. It works find. Avoid the play sand or sugar sand, it’s too fine. Sand in a creek bed or something like that works well and may be easy to gather. If you let them out on the ground for a while, they’ll find their own instinctively.

Just offer it on the side, separate from their regular food. You’ll be surprised how fast it disappears at first.