Feeding Bantam Type Day Old Chicks

Feeding day old chicks adequately is critical to their viability. There are many fine nutritious starters available for chicks. however I find sometimes chick starter granuals are a bit too large for chicks to consume, particularly serama and bantam type chicks, sometimes they just aren’t able to eat the larger chunks to get enough nutrition and unfortunately they may starve. One option is to put the starter in a blender or food processor and grind smaller which can work well.

You want to make sure in early days of life your chicks are getting sufficient food to grow strong. I have derived a baby chick stater blend to get them over the hump in their early stage of life, feeding this until they are large enough, about 4 to 6 weeks old. I have been feeding my bantam chicks this starter blend and they did quite well, with less losses, thriving with vitality and a good growth rate. They did much was better than straight starter, when feeding bantam chicks. Let me reiteration the starter is an excellent food choice for baby chicks, its just some times the granuals can be a bit large for smaller chicks to adequately consume depending on the starter type. I do not want to mislead, chick starter can be a great choice for chicks. its what most of our chicks eat the first four months of their life, its just in some cases it may be too large for smaller bantam type chicks to consume. I also find one batch of starter may have fairly small granuals and the next batch quite a bit larger of the same feed, so be on alert for this as well. Chicks like this food plan and go after it vigorously.

I mix one part each of finch feed, (which is a blend of tiny seeds), baby oatmeal, chick starter and 1/2 part of ground flax. I start feeding chick grit when the chicks are three days old following the package directions.