What can I use for baby grit?

[Deleted]

I hope somebody here can answer this for me... I ordered my chicks (a dozen Light Brahma pullets) on Monday and I should have them tomorrow or Friday. I have everything set up for their arrival (enclosure, litter, food, water, thermometer, heat lamp), but I can't find baby grit anywhere around here.

Do I even need it? Can I put some food on the ground outside and let them peck at the dirt? We have sandy loam, so there's quite a bit of sand in it, but I don't know what ELSE is in it, and I don't want to expose them to some awful mold or bacteria unneccessarily. Or am I worrying too much?

Has anyone else had this problem? I need some ideas. Help!

~Lannie

[painteddaisy]

I have never given any of my birds grit. I don't know if they "need" it when they are little, but I've never had any problems.
Maybe I'm an idiot, maybe I'm just lucky .

[Deleted]

You can buy grit at a pet store or Walmart. Even our local grocery store has it. It will be in the place where they sell parakeet food. All birds need some grit for their gizzard to work properly. I think there may be a little added to some feeds, but I always add extra to be on the safe side.

[Deleted]

Wendy, you must live in a city! LOL! We don't have a pet store. Chickens don't seem to be a popular item here, and no one has it. Even the place where we ordered the chicks, which claims to be a feed store, doesn't carry it. There are only two feed stores here (the other one caters to cattle only). Wal-Mart never has what I'm looking for, so we're not even shopping there anymore. Besides, they're in Rapid City. I'm sure there are more feed stores in Rapid City, but I don't think Rich is going to want to drive 200 miles for a bag of sand.

Guess I'll try letting them peck in the dirt outside on nice days. I'm afraid of not giving them any, because they DO need something to grind their food with. Argh... I should have ordered some online a week ago, but I figured I could just get it locally, and now it's too late to get here in time. Oh, well.

One more challenge of living in the boonies!

~Lannie

[bbird]

I usually don't use any, but if you want to that is okay too. Make it simple....use gravel, crushed oyster shells, even a handful of sand sprinkled around.

[Deleted]

I don't give mine and at all and surely not when they are babies. I think most of the commercial baby chick food may have some it in. You could always go and take a handful from the sand box they would work too. Mine are all free range and do just fine with out and suppliment of grit even in the winter.

[Deleted]

What a gorgeous day it was! I got SO much done outside in the garden, and I'll probably be feeling it tomorrow.

So you guys just give baby chicks the chick starter and no grit, huh? The book I have (and all the hatchery websites) say to put "baby grit" on their food from day one. I just didn't want to leave them without something in their craw to help with "chewing." I guess I'll try the no grit route. Once they're bigger, and go out to the main chicken house and run, they'll have plenty to pick and choose from, but while they're in the brooder, they'll be confined and I was just worried they would end up choking or something. I'm only getting 12, so I didn't want to lose any to stupidity or neglect on my part.

If I had some clean sand around here, I'd just use that, but I don't. I have plenty of small and medium gravel, but it's way too big for babies. The only sand is what's in the soil, and of course it's all mixed in with the dirt.

Well, wish me luck, anyway!

~Lannie

P.S. Are there any of you who feed your chickens something other than corn-based chicken feed?

[bbird]

doh Another way way to give them grit is to use egg shells. For the little chicks I would dry the shells in the oven and dry them out and crush them real fine.

I was given wonderful advice by my granny when I asked about chicken feed, and she said look around you and let your chickens go. What they can get outside is better then any chicken food you can buy. Explained to me that during the depression, chickens were never fed, and yet they survived, and fed the family with themselves and their eggs. (I always thought that was good advice, as I would sit here pampering my fat chickens. )

[Deleted]

Thanks, bbird, I have eggshells! I'll try that at first.

Rich doesn't want the chickens running loose (although that may change eventually). I know there's plenty for them to eat in the summer, but I'm thinking about winter. I don't want them eating corn because of the mycotoxins, and I'm trying to remove that from our diet - that's why I'm getting my own chickens (and milk cow and beef calf and pigs). I was thinking of blending some whole oats with some barley for grains, and cracking those, then hard boiled egg for protein to replace the corn, and crushed eggshell for calcium and to make their eggs harder. I have lots and lots of good greens and there'll be plenty of bugs and grasshoppers for them in the summer. I'm just thinkin' ahead here...

Thanks!

~Lannie

[Deleted]

No, I do not live in the city. Thank GOD!! I'd probably shoot myself. You can use egg shells, sand, even dirt would probably have enough grit in it for them.

[bergere]

Becareful though how much egg shell you give them.
To much calcium at too young an age can cause them to get sick or have growth problems.

I have never given my chicks grit at all, until they went outside. Normally once all the feathers are all over their body...sometimes there is a tiny bit of fuzz on a head or two. By that age,, they find the grit themselves.

If you think you really need some. Buying it from this place is not spendy. I order from them all the time.
www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12498&Ntt=8in1&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

[Deleted]

I found some really nice clean beach sand at, of all places, the lumberyard. I never thought to look there, but when we were in town getting horse feed today, they suggested going across the street, and they had some. I'm only going to sprinkle a little (like salt) over the bottom of their enclosure with their food. Then that's it. The rest of the sand will be used in my potting and gardening projects.

Sorry I was offline all day, but aside from going to town, we had a line of bad thunderboomers and large hail, so we unplugged the computers. And discovered we have a roof leak. Oh, joy. At least it's out in the utility room and not right over the bed. For that I can be grateful! Now we have yet another project to tackle.

Thanks guys!

~Lannie

[Kathy]

Most grocery stores have a small pet section-chew toys, catnip, bird seed, etc. When I couldn't find #1 grit at the mill in KY, I picked up a box of Hartz Mountain Bird Grit at the local mom & pop grocery store-it was for canaries and parakeets but it worked.

[Deleted]

Thanks, Kathy, but I think the sand I got will work just fine. I made sure I looked at it before we bought it.

I thought my chicks would be here today, but I called and they said tomorrow probably. So I think we're still going to go pick them up tomorrow, but I'll call first for sure. No sense wasting a 150 mile trip for nothing. I can't wait - their little "nest" is all set up and waiting for them. ;D

~Lannie

[Deleted]

By the way, I LOVE your new avatar!

[Kathy]

Thanks, once I saw that pic; it called my name.
Good luck with the little fuzz balls. New chicks & ducks are so much fun. ;D

[bergere]

Lannie am glad you found a local source!
Would love to see pictures of your chicks once they arrive. ;D

[Deleted]

Well, IF I ever get them, I'll send you some pictures. When I ordered them Monday, they were supposed to ship the same day, and be at the store on either Wednesday or Thursday. I called yesterday and they hadn't arrived, but they said they should be in today. This morning I called again, and they STILL aren't there, but they said they get two mail deliveries a day, so I'm supposed to check back after 4:00 this afternoon to see if they came in the second delivery.

How long can chicks last in a box in the mail?? This is the 4th day already! I'm afraid they'll all be dead when they arrive. Oh, and last night we had a storm, and the temp dropped down to 24 degrees, so I hope the box of chicks was inside somewhere overnight. Jeez...

~Lannie

P.S. Sorry about all that silliness about baby grit. I re-read my book, and it said that babies don't need grit as long as they're on chick starter because it's ground fine enough for them to be able to swallow with no problem. It's when they go outside or start eating whole grains that they need the grit. However, you can give them fine sand as baby grit and it won't hurt them, even though it's not necessary. I feel kind of silly now, but hey, I gotta learn, right?

[bbird]

Don't apologize, because that is the thing about starting with any animal. We were all there at one point in our lives.

Some day I will have to tell you about the first time I had turkeys. I didn't know they grew beards and thought that the turkey had somehow impaled itself on a paint brush in the the barn. I put that poor turkey through a lot.