Wont eat scratch

[Missunderstood1017]

My chickens are all about 5 months old now. I started to try and feed them a bit of scratch sprinkled around and inside a couple treat dispensing toys as a form of daily enrichment. They pick out the sunflower seeds but that's it. They wont even try to eat the rest of it. Non of the other grains not even the cracked corn. It seems like they dont even think its food. Is there a way i can get them more interested in eating different things?

 

[FrostRanger]

Honestly scratch isn't very good for them anyways. If they don't like it, no great loss

That said, to introduce new foods, give it to them and leave them to it, they should figure it out eventually

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Bio-diversity is important in dogs but my school of thought is reverse for chickens. I don't give many treats and side projects as if takes away from the main source of nutrition. Nothing wrong with giving treats here and there but if they don't eat it there is nothing wrong with that either. Also chicks are pickier, then they're adults they'll likely eat the corn but even adults will often leave the part of scratch that is more for horses and rabbits.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is there a way i can get them more interested in eating different things?

Just give them the opportunity. Mine forage for a lot of their food as well as eat the chicken feed I offer them. I have a large garden so they get excess and stuff that we don't eat. I toss fruit in their run in season. I don't try to micromanage every bite they eat because I can't since they forage. I let them handle that. They are healthy, active, lay a lot of eggs, produce meat, and hatch and raise chicks. I let them be chickens.

Sometimes when I toss things from the garden or fruit trees into the run they eat it like it's ice cream and cake. Really go after it. Sometimes they ignore certain things. One group may really eat broccoli or chard leaves but not eat cabbage leaves. Or they may prefer cabbage. Each group is different but usually if I leave it out for them they will eventually try it and eat it.

A story. One time I was canning corn and gathered a yogurt container full of corn ear worms while shucking and silking it. I dumped that container of corn ear worms on a bare spot in the vicinity of a bunch of 10-week-old chicks. Step by step, inch by inch, they carefully approached that pile. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away! But they did not run far. Very soon, step by step, inch by inch, they again started stalking that pile. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away! This repeated two or three more times before a very brave cockerel grabbed a worm. That pile was eaten within less than a minute. All it took was that one brave cockerel to grab one.

So just make it available. One day it will start to be eaten.

 

[Missunderstood1017]

Just give them the opportunity. Mine forage for a lot of their food as well as eat the chicken feed I offer them. I have a large garden so they get excess and stuff that we don't eat. I toss fruit in their run in season. I don't try to micromanage every bite they eat because I can't since they forage. I let them handle that. They are healthy, active, lay a lot of eggs, produce meat, and hatch and raise chicks. I let them be chickens.

Sometimes when I toss things from the garden or fruit trees into the run they eat it like it's ice cream and cake. Really go after it. Sometimes they ignore certain things. One group may really eat broccoli or chard leaves but not eat cabbage leaves. Or they may prefer cabbage. Each group is different but usually if I leave it out for them they will eventually try it and eat it.

A story. One time I was canning corn and gathered a yogurt container full of corn ear worms while shucking and silking it. I dumped that container of corn ear worms on a bare spot in the vicinity of a bunch of 10-week-old chicks. Step by step, inch by inch, they carefully approached that pile. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away! But they did not run far. Very soon, step by step, inch by inch, they again started stalking that pile. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away! This repeated two or three more times before a very brave cockerel grabbed a worm. That pile was eaten within less than a minute. All it took was that one brave cockerel to grab one.

So just make it available. One day it will start to be eaten.

I live in the desert so there is little to no eatable plant life for them to really forage threw and because of water restrictions we aren't really allowed to plant or water much so i try to come up with ways for them to stay entertained and busy during the day. I have a good sized area enclosed (25'x75') for them to run around in. There is a few weeds and they have already demolished the tiny bit of grass that did grow in there and its mostly dirt with a couple big shade covers for them to hangout under. My rooster has found a spot where he can see the backdoor and has started crowing relentlessly till i come outside. So i figured they needed more than me for entertainment. Most of the suggestions online include some way for them to work for food i first tried using their food only but they had no interest. Then I've been trying to use treats *affordable treats lol but that only gains slightly more interest than the regular food.

 

[Altairsky]

Step by step, inch by inch, they carefully approached that pile. A worm wiggled! Run away! Run away!

The first time I gave my chicks watermelon: as soon as they saw the red part, they screamed and ran away like if they saw the devil in person. They weren't so scared not even when they met my friends Rottweiler.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I live in the desert so there is little to no eatable plant life for them to really forage threw and because of water restrictions we aren't really allowed to plant or water much so i try to come up with ways for them to stay entertained and busy during the day. I have a good sized area enclosed (25'x75') for them to run around in. There is a few weeds and they have already demolished the tiny bit of grass that did grow in there and its mostly dirt with a couple big shade covers for them to hangout under. My rooster has found a spot where he can see the backdoor and has started crowing relentlessly till i come outside. So i figured they needed more than me for entertainment. Most of the suggestions online include some way for them to work for food i first tried using their food only but they had no interest. Then I've been trying to use treats *affordable treats lol but that only gains slightly more interest than the regular food.

Clutter would likely be better entertainment than food/treats and you have a huge area to work with so no real restrictions on how much you can fit in there. Moving items around once in a while helps keep things interesting for them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/page-6#post-25037140

 

[ChicNmom]

I live in the desert so there is little to no eatable plant life for them to really forage threw and because of water restrictions we aren't really allowed to plant or water much so i try to come up with ways for them to stay entertained and busy during the day. I have a good sized area enclosed (25'x75') for them to run around in. There is a few weeds and they have already demolished the tiny bit of grass that did grow in there and its mostly dirt with a couple big shade covers for them to hangout under. My rooster has found a spot where he can see the backdoor and has started crowing relentlessly till i come outside. So i figured they needed more than me for entertainment. Most of the suggestions online include some way for them to work for food i first tried using their food only but they had no interest. Then I've been trying to use treats *affordable treats lol but that only gains slightly more interest than the regular food.

Have you tried dried meal worms or black soldier fly larvae?

You can also start trays of sprouts indoor and take it out for a treat.
Or hang a head of iceberg lettuce or a cabbage for them to pick at.