My chicks won't eat treats

[HorizonSon]

All super awesome and wonderful advise! Thank you, thank you.

 

[Baralak]

My 5 week old seramas are TOTALLY freaked out with crackers.... Hold it up to them and you would have thought they were vampires and it was a cross. Crush it up in front of them, hold your hand out and they go to town... Whole cracker... NO... Crushed cracker... Yes

Now my 12 week olds... Hold a cracker in front of them... 2 seconds...TOPS!

 

[maizey]

they never eat something new the first time... unless its a bug or think its a bug and end up accidently liking it because they thought it was a bug.

 

[BooBear]

chickies are so funny.

Mine are 4 weeks going on 5 and I have 2 that love to be held and petted. They love love love scrambled egg, a bit of yogurt, and any bug unlucky enough to fly into their brooder hutch. I have caught moths and they take them right out of my hand.

Recently I bought some freeze dried meal worms for them and they are very unsure what to think about the freeze dried meal worms. They kinda peck at them. Tried a bit of lettuce and it got mixed reactions. A few liked the lettuce but most were not sure about it.

From what I read from other folks chickens each have their own favorites when it comes to treats. When they swarm in like a hungry group of sharks you know you picked the treat that they really love!

 

[2many2count]

I use the suet feeders liek for birds and hang em on side they get use to it being there and are ok with it. Some love it others wont even touch it no clue what makes them decide which they will be guess just depends on appitite

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Well, I'm thinking I have bizzare birds. I took them outside this weekend because it was unseasonably warm and let them explore their new run. When I put them down, they all huddled together unsure of the big outside world. A hummingbird came to check them out and they freaked like it was a hawk. I had a good chuckle. Then a pill bug wandered right through the middle of the pack. They parted and gave it a good inspection but none of the four gave it a peck. It wandered on its merry way. I couldn't believe it. I'm sure that's the last time that will happen.

They did all take a good long dust bath in their new sandbox and had fun doing that. They didn't sniff at the smashed up hard boiled egg I had put out and sprinkled feed onto. But they did have fun scratching so I sprinkled feed on the ground for them to peck at.

I'm hopful that after another week, new things won't be quite so scary and we'll try some treats again then.

 

[Barbierifarms]

I buy my chicks crickets from petsmart for $.12each. They LOVE them & go crazy over those crickets.Mealworms are good but the crickets are larger for the price .I have 4silkie (2 are 1month& 2 are10days old) & 9 Buff orpington(10days old) chicks &only one of the month old silkies dont want the crickets, every one else runs around crazy over them.

 

[kla37]

Using the same container does help a lot. New things that my chickens have never seen before are usually ignored at first unless they are in the little galvanized pail I use as a treat bucket. If it comes from there, it must be really yummy and they don't give it a second thought.

 

[MotherHen1999]

I gave mine (6 RIR @ 3wks then) some finely mashed hard boiled eggs from my hand and it was a feeding frenzy. But now at 4 wks they won't touch newly introduced dried mealworms, yogurt or mashed bananas. I hope they grow out of it, I was looking forward to future fun with a variety of scrap treats (in suitable portions, of course)