Uh oh I bought Egg Layer and Not Chick Starter.

[Eris]

I don't know how I grabbed the wrong bag, but I don't have any chick starter left and the new bag I bought is Egg layer. I can't make it back to a feed store for at least a week. The only other options I have other than the egg layer is some regular eggs, "garden treasure" wild bird food, and some 'ol roy dog food.

The egg layer is 3-4 % calcium.
The wild bird food says the feed contains calcium but I can't find a percentage.
The dog food is 1% calcium.

 

[shober]

I ordered chicks one time years ago and never gave them chick starter. I just gave them lay mash and they all turned out fine. I didn't know any better!

I think for 1 week they would be fine to give it to them. You can always wet it to waste less!

 

[shober]

I ordered chicks one time years ago and never gave them chick starter. I just gave them lay mash and they all turned out fine. I didn't know any better!

I think for 1 week they would be fine to give it to them. You can always wet it to waste less!

 

[rarely bored]

I wouldn't give them the layer, because of the high calcium and I have seen people post with problems caused by it here. Can't say I've researched the subject more than that though.

do you have grains in your kitchen, like: cream of wheat, oats, other granola-y cereals?
the scrambled eggs sounds good. wild bird food should be fine as a supplement.
You could dig up some earthworms -- they are suppose to be real good for the babies.
Buttermilk is suppose to be good too.

 

[Imp]

How old are the chickens?

Imp

 

[Eris]

This sounds silly, but I have no grains at all in my kitchen.

They are about two and a half weeks.

I decided to give them some of the layer feed. I also gave them some of the dog food wet down, as it was horrible hard to attempt to make crumble out of it. They don't so much like the dog food, so I think I will end up just mixing the wild bird food with the layer pellet for now.