When can you feed chicks bugs?

[catlvr976]

My babies are almost a week old, actually, 2 of them are, but the others won't be til Monday.

When can I feed them a bug? And when I do, do they need to start the grit? They are eating chick starter now, and the guy at the feedstore told me they won't need grit til they're around 6 weeks or so.

I'm so excited to see what they do when they get a bug.

Thanks,
Jessica

 

[bantymum]

I have seen my 2 week olds eat a poor little spider after their mum gave it to them so it should be fine to let their natural instincts kick in with a bug.
In the wild I would say that they would have bugs quite early in the absence of chick starter!!!

 

[catlvr976]

Good point

I'm assuming they'd need grit then?

 

[bantymum]

I must admit that ive never used grit except in the chicken mixes that the mums have in their dish.
The bubs have access to dirt in the pen.
So Im not sure about the grit for your chicks, how are they housed? any dirt?
Helen
(ps it's Sunday morning here now!)

 

[keljonma]

Anytime you feed your chicks something other than commercial chick feed, you need to supply grit. Put it in a separate dish, not with the feed. They will only eat what they need.

The guy at the feed store is probably assuming you won't feed anything but commercial feed until the chicks are six weeks old.

 

[chrissieg]

I'm a real novice at chick care although I did have a couple of chicks hatch last year under a broody and all was well. I've got seven chicks 5/6 days old from an incubator and today I gave them a dish of dry soil from the garden to scratch and peck in thinking that's what they would be doing with their mum, and they just went crazy! Up 'til then they'd just had their own poo to play with! It's the chick equivalent of a 'Game Boy'!!

 

[blondiebee181]

It is a lot of fun to see what they do with different things! My 2 week old chicks and duck love yogurt and mashed banana, spinach leaves, violets, and I'm testing them on a little grass right now. I have been offering them little construction sand that we dumped in the yard earlier this year. Sprinkling a little over their food will encourage them to eat it and then they take what they need out of a little feed cup. Chick grit is sold at some feed stores as well but if you are going to feed something out of the yard I heard you should make sure it has enough rock content to actually grind, not just like potting soil.