No more grinding food for chix

[Ginmary]

here I am grinding the chick food for our 2 one week old seramas. Today, I give a super worm to mama who proceeds to drop it and make her come and get it noises. Before I could get to it, one chick runs over and grabs it and downs it.
Thankfully I think it had been pecked dead first. Those worms have big mouths! I would hate to think of it still alive in the chick!

Then I give some large crickets to mom and the other two hens. Here come both babies each grab their own cricket and run off with them.

These babies are too darn cute. Please God let them be pullers!

 

[rebrascora]

How old are your chicks and what type of feed have you been grinding? Chicks should be fed chick crumbs at least initially. Grower pellets can be soaked in water for chicks (much easier than grinding and they love the wet mash) but don't have as much protein as chick crumbs. They should not be fed ground up layer pellets as it contains a higher level of calcium (needed to produce good quality egg shells in laying hens) which can lead to kidney problems long term in birds that are not actively laying eggs.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I had to grind Start and Grow Crumbles for a week to ten days for my Barred Rocks. . I used a blender. GC

 

[mixedbreeds]

I had to grind Start and Grow Crumbles for a week to ten days for my Barred Rocks.View attachment 1611053. I used a blender. GC

I do the same thing I have had to many drop outs in the past. Most chicks are fine but there are sometimes a few that really benefit from the ground food. I just started some quail grinding was a must.

 

[Ginmary]

These babies are too darn cute. Please God let them be pullers!

PULLETS!!! Not pullers!

 

[Doc7]

here I am grinding the chick food for our 2 one week old seramas. Today, I give a super worm to mama who proceeds to drop it and make her come and get it noises. Before I could get to it, one chick runs over and grabs it and downs it.
Thankfully I think it had been pecked dead first. Those worms have big mouths! I would hate to think of it still alive in the chick!

Then I give some large crickets to mom and the other two hens. Here come both babies each grab their own cricket and run off with them.

These babies are too darn cute. Please God let them be pullers!

Mama hen knows best.

Your chicks can certainly eat a live worm, I have seen mine even eat live small snakes.

 

[Ginmary]

Thanks. It’s just that those mega/super worms have those mouths that chew thru plastic bags. Found that out the hard way after we forgot to move them into a better container when we got home from the store. We were crawling on the kitchen floor trying to account for all 50!!!

 

[Melky]

Adult feed should not be fed to young chicks unless flock raiser and in addition to too much calcium would not have enough protein for growth the chicks main source of nutrition in addition to foraging. Adult layer usually 16% protein and young chicks up to 8 weeks need 20% protein feed. These would not be necessary to grind.

 

[Ginmary]

What I was grinding was chick starter not adult feed. I have seen several posts about feeding serama chicks recommended the grinding.

 

[rebrascora]

The broody or the chicks can easily break up chick crumbs in their beaks if they are too large but easier to give them a wet mash than go to the trouble of grinding it if you really feel it is too large, in my opinion.