....they WILL eat the shavings.... I didn't have to teach them to eat the food, they went right to it. I didn't have to teach them to drink the water, they went right to it. I didn't have to teach them to go to the bowl of chick grit, they went right to it. They do peck and and eat the shavings... I also put sweet PDZ in the bottom of the brooder and spread the shavings on top of it, they scratch the shavings away and peck at the PDZ and eat it, they go right to the meal worm treats I put in occasionally. Same with the lettuce scraps, and yesterday we had corn on the cob for supper. I purposely left a couple rings of corn around one end of the cob and put a couple cobs in with them, they immediately went right to them and started pecking them. I didn't have to teach them to eat the food or treats I put in. It's in their nature to peck at everything and eat it....
Papa knows best.
As I have mentioned on other threads, chicks are curious. This makes them pick or peck at everything in their environment to investigate it. The things that chicks find "interesting" they eat. If they find an object un-interesting they soon loose interest in it. Some of the "interesting" objects I have found in a chickens gizzard are dimes, rings, other costume jewelry, nails, staples, bits of broken colored glass, and other things or parts of things best left un-mentioned.
Why not sprinkle some dry Old Fashioned Oat meal, canary seed, or a few whole oats on the bedding each day to stimulate your biddies into choosing the right stuff. Also baby chicks are always hungry so keep chick food before them all the time. Besides chickens are scavengers, so a little food that they'll have to scavenge for keeps them mentally alert as well as the exercise and calories will help keep them warmer.
