When is it ok for chicks to have scratch or cracked corn, etc? My girls are 7 weeks and seem a bit bored with crumbles. I do give them some treats like crickets, grit, fresh fruit or chopped cooked veggies etc now and again. But what about scratch?
How can you tell your chickens are bored? Scratch is a treat, since you are already giving treats I would not give them scratch.
Good question. They just don't seem so interested in their food. But otherwise seem fine. Of course they jump out of their brooder any chance they get. But that's ok by me. I like chicken cuddles. Lol. Just didn't know if they were old enough to eat some. Just for variety.
I prefer to wait until they are 2-3 months old. Even then I feed it in small amounts and grit is available. [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Crickets, fruit and veggies are much healthier for them. If you want even more variety, feed them some mashed boiled egg or meal worms. I doubt they are bored, just well fed. [/FONT]
I think they are too young yet to dilute their protein out with scratch. I like to start decreasing the protein level from 20% down to 17% around a couple of months old. I'd just wait a bit and then give out a handful of scratch per day (since you have 10 chickens). Don't exceed 10% of the diet with treats from what I have read. If you are going to a grower feed that is already 17-18% I'd not bother with scratch at this time. I'd let them grow a bit.
Make so a quality complete diet for chicks is available at all times. The treats need not always be available. I do not consider insects of any sort a treat, rather they are supperior to any purchased formulation that simply a poor mans immitation of insects. With scratch, limit so they can not fill their crop with is at any one time. Make certain bulk of intake is the quality feed.
