Yogurt Fail and Other Treat Adventures

[ButtermilkMama]

My very first chickens are four three-week-old Buff Orp pullets. Over the last week, I have tried giving them different kinds of treats. Grass? It's okay to play with. Corn meal? Boring. Cranberries? Boring. Apple slices? Good for sitting on. Yogurt? Boy, they went crazy, but not because they liked it. They didn't really care about the flavor. I gave them plain white yogurt in a white dish and I swear they couldn't see the stuff at all. They would walk right through it, then act confused about why their legs were wet and sticky. One acted outright injured because the evil yogurt was weighing her legs down like she was stuck in the mud. And of course they were all crazy messy when it was over and I put out a shallow dish of water for them to wander around in to wash. More successful was the introduction of fresh spinach leaves. Oh, how they love it! All fighting over the same piece even if there are twenty others. Same with linguine, which I like to drape over the perch to encourage them to try it out (it's kinda high). They definitely have their favorites and yesterday's dandelion leaves and flowers aren't one of them. Interestingly, they all like and dislike the same things as a flock.

Do you have interesting chick treat stories?

 

[looptloop]

LOL! Your description's were spot on and hilarious! I have 2 sets of girls, 4 eight week olds and 4 10 day old chicks. The older girls like yogurt okay, but half of them do walk right through it. The babies tasted it, but ended up making a bigger mess than anything. I haven't given them anything else yet. Of the big girls, no one liked broccoli. Celery tops were interesting... they love meal worms and blueberries though. None of them even seem that interested in scratch.

 

[felidaet]

Last year I gave my little ones a little bit of crushed cheerios. They loved them. If they wanted to eat it though they had to eat it out of my hand. Worked good until they got a little older and it started hurting my hand. I plan to do this again this year. It has not a lot of cheerios, probably about 1/2 a cup shared by 18 chicks. And yes they did have chick grit available.

 

[jbarichivich]

Buttermilk, oh I just loved reading your treat experiences!

I gave my 2 wk old chicks sunflower seeds and then watched them gag~ I was in a state of panic. Ran out and got grit for them.

Today I mooshed up some hardboiled egg and put a little grit in in. So far they have smelled it, walked through it and pretty much turned their beaks up to it. It's making the room smell just wonderful

Ok onto something else. May try the spinach leaves!

It is funny how they like and dislike the same things.

Happy treat trying,
Julie B.

 

[poodlepill]

I've been giving my little chicks treats too. So far the Barred Rocks are the best and most aggressive eaters followed by the SLW, the Buff Orps are getting more aggressive but took them longer to try things. I have fed them hard boiled egg, bread, worms found outside, lady bugs and some grass clippings. The loved all of it, some more than others.

 

[JROOSTER]

My lil guys hated the yogurt. If any got onto their beaks they would act like they were on fire or something, running around shaking their heads rubbing on stuff. Hard boiled egg mostly ignored.

If you want to see something really funny throw a cricket in the brooder and move out of their way. They will run you down if dont. One grabs it and they all start chasing that one trying to get any lil part of the poor cricket they can. Its too funny.

 

[whillergee]

So as a complete newbie, I'm biting my nails over every little new thing I do with my batch of four two-week-old chicks (one Delaware, an Australorp, what I think is an Ameraucana, and a Rhode Island Red). Can I start giving them treats at this age? I want to help them get used to us instead of jamming themselves into a corner of the brooder in a screaming mass whenever we stick a hand in there (and we've been gently handling them every day since we got them) - my thinking is that a hand with a treat in it will be much more, shall we say, palatable. Can I start trying bugs and so forth? Anything in particular I should avoid?

 

[fldiver97]

I started with little pieces of leftover whole wheat spaghetti....big hit. When they were little they did not eat some stuff, did not seem interested. A little oatmeal, some bugs, pasta, rice and grass were popular when they were about 6 weeks old. Then mealworms - they went crazy....as crazy as they were when they got the little wormsize pieces of pasta. Now they love yoghurt, kale, cabbage, steamed squash and lots of other veggies and greens. They don't care for apples or bananas though. Now any kind of berry, BOSS and pomegranate as well as raisins are extremely popular!! Oh ans when they were about 7 or 8 weeks old they discovered my little native wild strawberries.....I use them as groundcover in some areas. They did not kill the plants but those berries disappeared in nanoseconds.....

 

[my3jsons]

While giving a treat to my little chickadees today, I unintentionally gave myself a treat. I was spooning yogurt out of the container and got some on one of my fingers. Instinctively I licked it right off, just like any good cook would do. Only problem, this was the bottom of the container and I'd been using the same spoon to spoon the yogurt onto the poopified chicken dish all week. I can still taste it hours later. I'm sure I won't die but I did consider sticking my finger down my throat. I've only brushed my teeth twice since then. I think I'll go brush again. I don't think my kids have ever seen me spit before. Quite entertaining for them, quite disgusting for me!

 

[LALADY1101]

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