QUICK! What household food to feed chicks

[chickenlady2010]

So somebody in our house forgot to buy chick feed today (hopefully he'll remember tomorrow). Chicks are with mamma hen; we just got them today, but the chicks are about days old. They have water, and I scrambled some eggs for all of them to eat. What else can I feed them that I might have around the house, until we get the feed tomorrow? Oatmeal? Plain Cheerios crushed up? Bread? Romaine? (Prefer to save the lettuce for the kids instead if I can) Funny, the moneys go to bed, and the chicks start peeping like crazy; I don't know if they ate the eggs, if mamma did, or both. Thank you for your quick suggestions!

 

[PetesChicks]

What do you have for regular chicken food? That would probably be best to use. If you have pellets, just crumble them up in a blender or put them in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin or something.

If you don’t have any chicken feed, I’d say eggs and oatmeal would be the safest. Most other foods you don’t want to feed chicks until they have started with grit.

Good luck!

 

[sylviethecochin]

Unless they've had grit, best to avoid stuff that isn't easily digested. If you have it, crushed layer feed will do in a pinch. They're not going to eat enough calcium to hurt them in one day.

 

[MROO]

Oatmeal should be fine for just the day. We gave it to our last hatchery batch to fight off pasty butt, so I know it's safe. I'd be leery of giving it to them for long, though, as it is used to control diarrhea, so it might stop them up if they get it for very long. I've given slightly older peeps crushed, canned corn (recipe leftovers.) They didn't get much but they loved it.