Crying Weaning Chicks

Hand feeding a slow weaning Border chick.

Hand feeding a slow weaning German roller chick.

Feeding Big Babies

At weaning, some chicks will sit around and either fluff up their feathers or sit and cry for hours without eating. They beg any other chick in addition to parents if they are in the cage.

For these chicks I like to take the perches out of the cage and make them sit on the floor with the food. If they keep crying, I will try and hand feed them.

At this age, they will usually not open wide like a young chick. They prefer to nibble. Some will nibble the food from my toothpicks or I offer food on my finger as shown in the pictures. The border is being feed a paste of vegetable protein (soy) and the roller a paste of Harrison's high potency mash.