What can I feed 3 week old chicks?

[sillycmoy]

I'm extremely new, and rescued 4 chicks from a trash can at the local gas station last Wed. I took them to our local feed store, and they think they are around 3 weeks old. We started them on the starter chick food, but didn't know if there was anything else I could feed them. And what can I feed them when they get older.

Thanks

 

[ellie32526]

I'm extremely new, and rescued 4 chicks from a trash can at the local gas station last Wed. I took them to our local feed store, and they think they are around 3 weeks old. We started them on the starter chick food, but didn't know if there was anything else I could feed them. And what can I feed them when they get older.

Thanks

Mine are just over one month, they eat grass bugs, fruit and chick starter. If you feed anything more than commercial starter food, you should have grit available all the time.

 

[Chick Charm]

The chicks will be fine eating chick starter until mature (start laying eggs if they are hens). You can let them in your yard and they will pick at bugs and eat grass and even get some good rocks in the crop. A good guess is that 1/2 to 2/3's of their diet will be the chick starter. When they mature you can feed them layer, and they will do just fine.

Great find! Way to take care of them. Good job.

 

[sillycmoy]

What size of rocks should I have. I did buy a coop today, and need to start working on getting it all put together, plus I'm going to build a good sturdy run since we do have dogs. Right now we are thinking of putting them in the back corner of our yard. The run will include their coop, that has a built in run, and then fenced off run of about 10 ft by 18 ft. There is a very large pine tree in the middle to provide shade, right now its mostly dirt, we have a hard time in that corner due to the sprinkler system not reaching that area. So we figured it would be good for them, with no sprinklers in the summer. So do I need to put some gravel in there? If so what size? We are planning on letting them free range in the whole yard maybe a few hours a few times a week when we are home to lock the dogs up. But they will still have their coop run, and the other run that we are going to build for them.

I just didn't know if there was any type of treats or anything to give them. I've heard of people giving them hard boiled eggs, fruits, and Vegs, but I didn't know if you could even feed that to a chicken let alone a chick.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Chick Charm]

You do not need to put gravel in the run for the sake of providing them grit. You could give them some chick grit now and if needed later on give them grit for grown birds. However it should be noted that if they have access to the yard they will likely find all the grit they need naturally.

chicks and chickens love treats. But do make sure to give them grit first if they have never been out in the yard yet. They need the grit to grind up their food. Otherwise the crop can be adversely affected.