I gave my chicks treats starting at about 1 week to 10 days old.
Chick grit was offered free choice in a separate container from their food.
One thing they really loved and that is free is a plug of sod.
I got the idea from a few other experienced BYC peeps.
I just went outside to my yard and pulled up a chunk of grass with roots and dirt attached and put it in the brooder with the chicks.
They were so excited about it!
A few chicks were kind of scared of it but it quickly wore off.
They pecked and scratched at it for a couple of days.
My Silkie even got a little worm one time and the chase was on!
If my husband or I came across any bugs we’d toss them in the brooder and the babies would go nuts lol.
We’d get these fat brown beetles attracted to our porch light and in the morning they’d be dying on the ground.
Into the brooder! Even the dead ones- the chicks still ate them.
Other bugs were ignored though.
It’s usually because they tasted bad.
Other treats I gave them were mealworms, uncooked steel cut oats (they’re tiny, unlike rolled oats), greens like lettuce or spinach, tiny bits of chopped fruit or tomatoes, sardines, minced hard boiled/scrambled egg or canned tuna, and occasionally cottage cheese (chickens don’t process dairy extremely well so although they love dairy it’s best to limit it to an occasional treat).
It’s important to keep in mind that our human raised chicks need us to be surrogate mothers and show them what’s good to eat.
Sometimes they act like they’re scared of it at first. Or ignore it. They may repeatedly pick it up and drop it.
Don’t give up! I would pick things up and offer it to them with my fingers.
I would pick it up and drop it showing it to them.
I quickly learned that treats would be accepted more often if I broke or chopped them into very tiny pieces!
Mother hens break up bugs and other things for their small chicks.
I found a brand of yellow mealworms that were smaller than the typical brown ones.
My chicks would eat those but it took several weeks before they were comfortable eating the brown mealworms without them being broken up first.
Also keep in mind that treats should be kept at no more than 10% of their diet.
Their chick starter feed has all the nutrients their growing bodies need.
Sometimes even mixing some of their feed with a bit of water to make a mash will be a treat to them.
It’s amazing how excited they get about it.
I liked to offer these things to them on a shallow 8” diameter terra cotta plant saucer I got for a few bucks at the garden section of the store.
That way their treats weren’t getting pine shavings stuck on them.
Although some still got in there anyway since they’d walk on the saucer.
They’re almost 3 months old and I still use it.
I’m SO sorry for such a long post!
I really like to share the things that have worked well for me.
