What age should i hold me baby chicks and ducklings??

I have live as well as dried mealworms. I feed my mealworms chicken pellet feed & also have the mealworms dusted with chicken feed, this is known as loading & many people that have reptiles will roll worms in nutrition dust to get the nutrients into the reptile. My chicks went nuts for the smaller live worms & I offered them at 3 days old. Just a few at 1st...abt 3 worms per chick. It teaches them foraging skills & also they looked forward to my visit. Chick crumble feed is available at all times, but a few live mealwoms once day is not a bad thing. I had 3 runt chicks, not doing as well, so I'd take them out & give them 10 mealworms each, it took them much longer to catch & eat & other chicks would knock them over & steal their worm, so taking them out for a few min helped. After a week they were little experts & zipping around, able to compete with the rest. I offer treats only once or twice a week now, but when they were chicks, eating every 15 min & growing fast, a few mealworms once a day wasn't bad for them, they still ate a ton of the nutritious chick feed constantly. The 3 runts caught up & are doing great.
Great! I just prefer to wait after having crop issues in a Cochin chick once. Might just have been coincidence, but I prefer to wait a bit.
 
It's not working! :he I've been sitting here for almost an hour and they are still huddled up in a corner am i doing something wrong??
 
It's not working! :he I've been sitting here for almost an hour and they are still huddled up in a corner am i doing something wrong??
It can take a long time. You're big and scary and you just might eat them... or at least they think you might.

If you want to use treats, here's one way to do it without having to sit there for long stretches of time:
--put in a small amount of the treat. You can stay there or walk away. The chicks will be scared of the new thing, but will eventually come investigate and decide it tastes good.

--a few hours later, or maybe the next day, put in a small amount of the treat. The chicks might be scared, or might run right up, but they will eat it sooner than they did the first time.

--the next time you put in the treat, the chicks will probably run up to eat it right away.

--after a few more repeats, the chicks will probably run right up to your hand to get the treat, and sometime after that they will be willing to take it directly from your fingers.

All of that might take a few days, but probably less than a week, depending on how many times each day you work on it.

As I've already said, my favorite "treat" is wet chick starter, but obviously other people use other things with good results too.
 
It can take a long time. You're big and scary and you just might eat them... or at least they think you might.

If you want to use treats, here's one way to do it without having to sit there for long stretches of time:
--put in a small amount of the treat. You can stay there or walk away. The chicks will be scared of the new thing, but will eventually come investigate and decide it tastes good.

--a few hours later, or maybe the next day, put in a small amount of the treat. The chicks might be scared, or might run right up, but they will eat it sooner than they did the first time.

--the next time you put in the treat, the chicks will probably run up to eat it right away.

--after a few more repeats, the chicks will probably run right up to your hand to get the treat, and sometime after that they will be willing to take it directly from your fingers.

All of that might take a few days, but probably less than a week, depending on how many times each day you work on it.

As I've already said, my favorite "treat" is wet chick starter, but obviously other people use other things with good results too.
Thanks! hopefully this will help and if not I'll probably be here again in about a week. And I will start this method tonight!
 
And some just aren't fans of people. Try your best to bond with them, but don't beat yourself up if they don't become your bffs. I have 2 hens who want very little to do with me. That's ok. I still enjoy watching them and seeing how they interact with the flock. What's most important is that they are happy and healthy.
 

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