NEWBIE QUESTION...Can I feed oatmeal to my 2 week old chicks?

[egg mama]

Should I mix it into their chick starter?

Is the old fashioned oats okay to use?

Do they need grit for that?


Thanks for your help.

 

[fldiver97]

They should have some fine grit available if you do. Give small amounts. I gave it when they were 3 weeks old. I let them have chopped up greens and cooked pasta too at 3 -4 weeks, allowed them to peck at grass and bugs but they had grit available. When it was cold I made warm oatmeal for the girls but they were big then. But they love their warm oatmeal!!!!!!

 

[flockof4]

Oatmeal should be fine for the chicks. Offer grit. Old fashioned oats will work.

 

[egg mama]

Thank you both.

I wasn't planning on "making" the oatmeal...just adding the oats raw into the feed. I will wait though...need to get grit first.

 

[flockof4]

Raw oats are fine as well. Mine seem to love oats. I mix them in with the scratch that I make.

 

[underground chickenman]

You can, but I primarily stick with a good quality starter feed at this age. I like Purina Start 'n' Grow. You can throw in some treats after the first couple of weeks, such as small pieces of fruit and even some oatmeal, but at this very young age and small size, you risk diluting the necessary nutrients found in a balanced feed. There's no rush at this stage to supplementing with other foods.

If you are mixing your own starter feed and are including oat meal as an ingredient in a balanced and appropriate recipe, that's different.

If you feed them anything other than a commercial feed, you do need make sure they have access to chick-sized grit.

I understand the urge for a new chicken farmer to see his or her chicks become chickens, but they get there soon enough and once they do, they are more than happy to sample whatever treats you want to give them. When they are older, the risk of diluting essential nutrition is not as great, although even then you can still get out of balance with too much of one thing.

Enjoy every phase and get them off to a good start with good balanced nutrition appropriate for their age and size.

UGCM

 

[egg mama]

Thanks UGCM. I think I will wait. They seem very happy with their chick starter & are growing well.