worming chicks advice????

[cartersmith]

for my chicks i used diatom at 5% in with there food. can i do the same with the chicks and whats the earliest i can do this

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

My bag of DE states to use it at a maximum of 1-2% of the feed. I have done this in the past.

I always give chick starter/grower feed until around 6 weeks old, then switch to my feed recipe, which used to contain the DE. So I have no experience giving DE to small chicks internally.

I would think 5% might be a bit much. I googled it to find a link with the same info as my bag:
http://www.biconet.com/flies/DE.html

http://www.diatomitecanada.com/feeding-livestock-fossil-shell-flour-de.htm
this one says 2%

 

[wbruder17]

DE does not work when mixed with water. Also, I wouldn't give wormer unless its needed, as they will build up a tolerance to any medications they don't need. Then if they actually ever really need it, the parasites will be immune.

Most backyard poultry will have internal parasites simply by being chickens and eating off the ground and they are not necessarily harmful.