When can my chicks eat crickets?

[Brandon L]

My chicks are a week old, I thought it would be fun to toss a few crickets into the brooder.

At what point is it safe to have them eat something other than starter feed?

 

[debid]

Insects are carriers for parasites. So, there is no such thing as a safe age.

Now, if you lean toward filling in for mama hen, she'd give them as soon as the chicks were out of the nest (days old, not weeks)... With access to grit, of course. If you are very conservative in your approach, you might never feed them anything but milled feed. It's really a matter of your choosing.