What should I do?

Chickadilly

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My week and a half chicks won't eat romaine lettuce, they ignore it?! What else should I give them? They will only eat their feed and are scared of "foreign" food. I have tried giving them a banana slice dipped in their feed. Still ignored. Do they just not want to try new things?
 
My week and a half chicks won't eat romaine lettuce, they ignore it?! What else should I give them? They will only eat their feed and are scared of "foreign" food. I have tried giving them a banana slice dipped in their feed. Still ignored. Do they just not want to try new things?

1 1/2 week chicks Only need to eat chick feed---if you feed them ANYTHING else you will have to provide grit so they can grind/digest it---if not they could die. Factory chick feed has the grit in it---I never feed mine Anything but the factory feed until they are on the dirt and I rarely have a chick to die---I feed No treats. These are yours and you can do how you feel----just trying to save a few chicks life. Yea, yea, some will say I feed mine this and that----again I feed mine no treats until they are on the ground. I only raise 1000's and don't want any problems and don't have any.

Romaine Lettuce----Shoot even my grown chicken will not eat it.
 
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1 1/2 week chicks Only need to eat chick feed---if you feed them ANYTHING else you will have to provide grit so they can grind/digest it---if not they could die. Factory chick feed has the grit in it---I never feed mine Anything but the factory feed until they are on the dirt and I rarely have a chick to die---I feed No treats. These are yours and you can do how you feel----just trying to save a few chicks life. Yea, yea, some will say I feed mine this and that----again I feed mine no treats until they are on the ground. I only raise 1000's and don't want any problems and don't have any.

Romaine Lettuce----Shoot even my grown chicken will not eat it.
Sorry I read that mothers will let their babies eat anything when they're a day old. And I read that week old babies can eat anything too. Thank you for the help
 
What's going on with your chicks is entirely normal. Do you or do you not have a broody hen rearing these chicks?

Usually chicks will avoid all new foods unless a broody shows them she wishes for them to eat it. This is a built-in instinct to keep chicks from eating things unsuitable for them. Chicks not raised by a broody will therefore be skeptical and avoid new foods.

Grit is necessary if you are going to introduce new foods. You may do so in moderation any time after the first week. My new babies are eating meal worms before they're a week old. They're raised on sand so grit isn't an issue. They kit their gizzards out with grit by the time they're three days old.

Give your chicks time as you introduce new things. They'll figure it out before you know it.
 
It’s a pretty common but false rumor on here but chicken feed or chick feed does not have grit in it. Even if crumble or pellet form it’s already been ground up so they don’t need grit to regrind it. It’s such a common myth that I e-mailed Purina about it. Nope, their chick feed does not contain grit. So don’t count on them getting grit from chick feed. They won’t.

If they eat much of anything other than chicken feed they need grit to grind it up in their gizzard. Romaine lettuce certainly is included in that, if you are feeding lettuce they need grit. Bananas and yogurt, not really. I think it is good practice to provide chicks grit at a really young age anyway. That way I don’t have to worry about it.

Chickens of any age can be reluctant to try anything new. I regularly toss stuff from my garden into the run. The adults might eat it immediately, they may ignore it for a while and eventually eat it, or they may forever ignore it. I can get the same different reactions with the same stuff, cabbage leaves for example. The chicks can be as bad or worse.

About the first thing my broody hens do with their chicks is to take them to a patch of dirt so the chicks can start pecking. They are getting grit. She will get them to eat certain foods after that, so they certainly can possibly eat green stuff from an extremely early age. But most of my broodies don’t immediately take them to grass to eat, they peck a lot at the ground at first, probably getting dried bits of food from that.

My suggestion, after giving them grit, is to just make the treat available. Chop stuff like lettuce into pretty small bits. Then be patient. Eventually one will get brave enough to try it and the others will then join in. Or they won’t. It’s not a life or death decision, they don’t need anything other than chick feed. It contains everything they need. The general recommendation is to not feed many treats at any age so they continue to get a balanced diet by mainly eating their feed.
 
Sorry I read that mothers will let their babies eat anything when they're a day old. And I read that week old babies can eat anything too. Thank you for the help

OK---maybe I mis-read or did not understand your post----are these chicks being raised by a broody hen or in a brooder. Sure broody hens feed the chicks what ever she wants----the chicks are usually on the dirt so they get grit from that.

But still my grown chickens will not eat lettuce, but I rarely give them any----Collards----they will stampede you for them.
 
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It’s a pretty common but false rumor on here but chicken feed or chick feed does not have grit in it. Even if crumble or pellet form it’s already been ground up so they don’t need grit to regrind it. It’s such a common myth that I e-mailed Purina about it. Nope, their chick feed does not contain grit. So don’t count on them getting grit from chick feed. They won’t.
Thanks, I am guilty of repeating what I have heard, and "Should" have done my own research too. I deleted that statement. I sure do not want to repeat untrue sayings! I do introduce chicks grit to brooder raised chicks from day one.
 
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I’ve done the same thing plenty of times. I saw that on here but when I couldn’t find grit as an ingredient on the label I decided to contact Purina about it. Purina will answer questions. Sometimes their answer leaves me more confused than when I started but on this one it was really clear.
 
It’s a pretty common but false rumor on here but chicken feed or chick feed does not have grit in it. Even if crumble or pellet form it’s already been ground up so they don’t need grit to regrind it. It’s such a common myth that I e-mailed Purina about it. Nope, their chick feed does not contain grit. So don’t count on them getting grit from chick feed. They won’t.

If they eat much of anything other than chicken feed they need grit to grind it up in their gizzard. Romaine lettuce certainly is included in that, if you are feeding lettuce they need grit. Bananas and yogurt, not really. I think it is good practice to provide chicks grit at a really young age anyway. That way I don’t have to worry about it.

Chickens of any age can be reluctant to try anything new. I regularly toss stuff from my garden into the run. The adults might eat it immediately, they may ignore it for a while and eventually eat it, or they may forever ignore it. I can get the same different reactions with the same stuff, cabbage leaves for example. The chicks can be as bad or worse.

About the first thing my broody hens do with their chicks is to take them to a patch of dirt so the chicks can start pecking. They are getting grit. She will get them to eat certain foods after that, so they certainly can possibly eat green stuff from an extremely early age. But most of my broodies don’t immediately take them to grass to eat, they peck a lot at the ground at first, probably getting dried bits of food from that.

My suggestion, after giving them grit, is to just make the treat available. Chop stuff like lettuce into pretty small bits. Then be patient. Eventually one will get brave enough to try it and the others will then join in. Or they won’t. It’s not a life or death decision, they don’t need anything other than chick feed. It contains everything they need. The general recommendation is to not feed many treats at any age so they continue to get a balanced diet by mainly eating their feed.
So the feed I give my chickies is almost like sand which is basically crumbles. They don't need grit for that right?
 
If that is all you are feeding them, no they do not need grit, assuming it is actually crumbles. The way they normally make chicken feed is to gather all the ingredients and grind that up into a powder. That’s called mash. If they want pellets, they wet that powder with water and make a paste, then extrude that paste through a die and flash dry it. That’s called pellets. To make crumbles they slightly crush the pellets. When that gets wet in their digestive track it returns to powder form so it does not need to be ground.

If that feed is not crumbles but is instead cracked grain, not ground up grains, they need grit. If in doubt, put some of the feed in water and stir it. If it turns onto a paste, they do not need grit.
 

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