baysidechicks
Songster
- Apr 9, 2020
- 72
- 87
- 106
Hi,
My four chicks are bug crazy already! So they're about two weeks old, their wings are feathering up nicely and they're flitting around. The brooder is a large dog crate on my 8 X 10 screened patio. Every day I go out in the morning and afternoon and open the crate door and just sit there with them on the patio with them. The lead chick, a girl who's twice the size of her sisters, is very brave and has been flying up and perching on the cardboard rim, hopping back into the crate, and then back up and then getting really brave and hopping out of the crate. Her closest buddy also started doing that. The two of them pecked around the patio this morning - I live in S. Florida and it's a tiled patio, and like everywhere else in Florida there are spiders and bugs. They found some spiderweb and ate it up. It's protein, and their chick feed has grit in it, so I wasn't worried it would hurt them. Well apparently they told their other two sisters and when I went out there this evening they practically mobbed the gate waiting for me to open it, and then all four of them scavenged around. They found one poor spider and made short work of him. They're eating these spider webs like kids at a fairground with cotton candy! They also eat their chick feed quite well, they're growing beautifully and very happy healthy little birds. Should I be concerned about them eating the spider and spider web? Is it too soon for them to be munching away on insects? I figured nature would guide them with this...but I'm a new chick mom and may be letting them do too much too soon?
My four chicks are bug crazy already! So they're about two weeks old, their wings are feathering up nicely and they're flitting around. The brooder is a large dog crate on my 8 X 10 screened patio. Every day I go out in the morning and afternoon and open the crate door and just sit there with them on the patio with them. The lead chick, a girl who's twice the size of her sisters, is very brave and has been flying up and perching on the cardboard rim, hopping back into the crate, and then back up and then getting really brave and hopping out of the crate. Her closest buddy also started doing that. The two of them pecked around the patio this morning - I live in S. Florida and it's a tiled patio, and like everywhere else in Florida there are spiders and bugs. They found some spiderweb and ate it up. It's protein, and their chick feed has grit in it, so I wasn't worried it would hurt them. Well apparently they told their other two sisters and when I went out there this evening they practically mobbed the gate waiting for me to open it, and then all four of them scavenged around. They found one poor spider and made short work of him. They're eating these spider webs like kids at a fairground with cotton candy! They also eat their chick feed quite well, they're growing beautifully and very happy healthy little birds. Should I be concerned about them eating the spider and spider web? Is it too soon for them to be munching away on insects? I figured nature would guide them with this...but I'm a new chick mom and may be letting them do too much too soon?
