Why give them mash?

[FruitfulFaith]

What is the significance of giving them a "mash" when they are tiny babies? Wouldn't chicks born "in the wild" (you know what I mean) be picking and pecking at debris from day one?

 

[gamebirdsonly]

You can buy chick feed that is crumbels if you don't want mash

 

[aggiemae]

Some baby chicks need the food reduced to dust or moistened so that eating enough to survived doesn't exhaust them. I buy crumbles but run then though the blender for the feeder and in addition I add one part buttermilk to two parts starter once a day for the fist week. (About 1/2 cup total for 6-8 chicks) for 'pasty butt' prevention.

Wild baby birds have an extremely high mortality rate there is no reason this should be the case with domesticated birds.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Chickens are NOT wild any more. They have been domesticated for years now, so they have changed. No chicks could successfully live without either Mash or chick crumbles.

 

[donrae]

My chicks usually get all-in-one feed, same as all my birds. I have very low mortality rates with hatchery birds, and a virtually nill mortality rate with homehatched birds.

Wild turkeys do okay around here without supplemental feed, and I really don't think domestic chickens' digestive systems have changed that much. If I had a chick that couldn't eat enough to survive, then, well, it doesn't deserve to survive! The wild turkeys seem to range over quite a large area though, and I think you'd need a good area for a momma hen to successfully raise a brood without supplementing feed.

My chicks also get table scraps and some scratch or corn when I toss some out. Doesn't hurt them.

Keep asking good questions like this, Faith! Don't just take as gospel everything that gets repeated on the internet, use your good sense, too.

 

[Elemental]

"If I'd known the world was ending I'd have brought better books"

The Walking Dead.

I like that quote too.

 

[Elemental]

What is the significance of giving them a "mash" when they are tiny babies? Wouldn't chicks born "in the wild" (you know what I mean) be picking and pecking at debris from day one?

Great question FuitfulFaith. I was wondering about the same thing.

 

[nova022]

I fed mine chick starter when they were small and they did just fine and grew like crazy. I give them mash once in a while now because they love it. I mix in a bit of ACV because they seem to get more of it through the mash than by putting it in their water.

 

[FruitfulFaith]

I think I have stepped into one of those gray areas between raising chickens the old fashioned way and taking your sick $2 chick to the vet XD

 

[donrae]

I think I have stepped into one of those gray areas between raising chickens the old fashioned way and taking your sick $2 chick to the very XD

And you will find both ends of that spectrum here on these boards. And they're both sure their way is the correct way lol.

"If I'd known the world was ending I'd have brought better books"

The Walking Dead.

I like that quote too.

At last! I've had that quote going for months and months and no one's tagged it. I bawled like a baby when he died. A hungry, angry baby.

Oh, maybe that's the next quote.........