My egg is hatching soon! I have a Q about raising new chicks!

[77horses]

Hi!
My egg will hopefully hatch soon, and when it does, I have a brooder and water, food...wait, food? Yes, i do have food...But I don't know if it's the right kind. It is cracked corn that is all crushed up, almost into a powder. I was wondering, can new born chicks eat this? i know there is chick starter feed, but i never had time to get some.

So is it ok to feed them this instead? Thanks!

 

[chickmamawannabe]

You will need to make time to get some chick starter. Cracked corrn is an incomplete food. Your chicks will not get enough nourishment from it. Also, if you get medicated chick starter, there will be less of a chance of your chicks contracting coccidiosis.

 

[Akane]

They also might require grit if feeding corn like that. I'm not sure if being ground up that much is enough or not. Usually when you start feeding grains and anything besides chick starter you start offering grit.

You only have 1 chick? They are social animals and get very lonely by themselves. You can have trouble raising one chick all alone. It would be best to see if you can find anyone else with some chicks so you can get at least one more. Try asking at the feed store.

 

[Shogun99]

Definietly get one more chick at least and the MEDICATED FEED is a MUST! I haven't had one chicken death (minus the run in with the family dog that got a bit over excited)

 

[77horses]

I do have grit that our two cockatiels use. yes, it is mostly alone, but there are other chickens that we have.(four pullets) but it can't go with them until old enough.
I put a small, life-sized soft chicken toy that peeps into the brooder box. This is my first time, and I was expecting to hatch out 3 other chicks but they never developed.

So I really had no choice.
Yes, i really want my mom to get some chick starter, but it seems too late. I will ask her, but we aren't really near a feed store.

My dad raised 4 baby chicks on laying mash(A BIG mistake! But I just found out that it can hurt the chicks due to high calcium a little while ago.) and ground up cracked corn and now they are healthy and almost ready to start laying. It never really hurt them.

Thanks for the advise!

 

[luvmychicknkids]

The chick can go for a couple of days after hatching without food so I would just wait to feed it and get some tomorrow or the next day. I am assuming it is hatching tonight?

 

[cmom]

Get some chick starter and have water for them. Chick starter has all the nutrients they need, and they will need plenty of water so keep it full and clean.