My Chicks are a week old, Treats?... Anything Else?

[Chick_a_dee]

As of Today (Wed) my chicks are a week old and I'm wondering if I can give them anything extra, or should I hold off until week two? I have some Organic Plain Yogurt.. is that okay?

 

[gritsar]

There seems to be two camps on giving treats. Those who start early and those that don't. I started treats (plain yogurt) @ around 2 weeks. However, yogurt is not so much a treat as it is a beneficial part of their diet. After that I added one treat every couple of days or a week. That way if something didn't agree with them, I'd be better able to figure out what it was. Keep in mind, treats should be a very small part of their diet; preferably not more than 10%.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
So I can try them on Plain Yogurt next Wed. then? (that would be 2 weeks for them). Also, a couple of them have started to roost on the feeder for a few minutes a night (usually one gets off and joins the others on the floor, and the other is the chick who hasn't quite grasped that when roosting you need to act like a big hen and tuck your beak and everything into your feathers or you'll flop and fall off the roost), if I give them a very low roost, will they start to use that instead of the feeder?

 

[peepkeeper]

They're a bit young yet for the roosting. They'll start doing that naturally in a few weeks. If you want to put a little short something in the brooder for them to hop up on it won't hurt them. Go ahead and give some treats, it's fun, but take it easy, you want them to fill up on their feed.

 

[Akane]

Personally I prefer to give as varied of diet as soon as possible and I figured chicks hatched by a hen would be eating greens, dirt, and bugs right away. So mine have had a bit of grit (sand from my horse arena) since they started catching bugs attracted to their brooder light on day 4 and I started giving them fresh treats shortly after that. Here they are at 1 week playing with a nasturtium flower that they eventually ate:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/chickens/brooder/?action=view&current=SANY0708.flv

With any animal the main thing is not to change their diet quickly. They should only have a few bites of something new to start with. Also don't add lots of different things at once. One new item at a time until they are used to it.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Yeah, the yogurt will be fine. Keep in mind that when you start other treats (solids) that they will need a little grit; either mixed in with their regular feed or in a seperate container. Before my babies started free-ranging, I found that the grit sold for caged pet birds works just fine. Now that mine are outside all day they find their own grit.
Mine would roost on the side of their brooder from about 10 days old. We made two small, low-to-the-ground roosts out of an 18" pieces of PVC pipe. As far as tucking their heads, they still rarely do it and they are almost 4 months old.

 

[JennsPeeps]

Also remember that babies don't know not to walk through the yogurt. They will get so messy with it, just like human babies!

If you can give them yogurt outside, go for it. They'll flick it & track it all over.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Yeah really! Put the yogurt down and then step back out of "fling range".

 

[Chick_a_dee]

I've just now put a small bowl of yogurt with some chick food in it, and they're interested in it... no one has gotten enough courage to try it, but they keep running through it, so I've got my brother watching them to see if any of them decide to try it. At least they're curious!

 

[Chicken_Lover4567]

Flick range? Sorry, my chickens don't have a range. They fling in anywhere, and EVERYWHERE! No place is safe...