Force them to eat dumped food?

[NatJ]

Our chicks are 2 weeks old. We have a chick feeder that they are constantly wasting a large portion of the food by dumping it on the ground. If I let the feeder go empty - will all of them find food from the pine bedding? Or is that too mean?

It would probably be safe enough to take the feeder away for an hour or so, maybe once or twice a day, to encourage them to eat the spilled feed.

But I would not do much more than that.

Overall, it is probably better to consider that feed permanently lost, and try to come up with a way to reduce spilled feed in the future.

Are these chicks the only chickens you have? If you have older chickens, you could dump the chick bedding into the big chickens' run, and they will probably scratch through it and eat some of the chick feed.

 

[cheldi]

It would probably be safe enough to take the feeder away for an hour or so, maybe once or twice a day, to encourage them to eat the spilled feed.

But I would not do much more than that.

Overall, it is probably better to consider that feed permanently lost, and try to come up with a way to reduce spilled feed in the future.

Are these chicks the only chickens you have? If you have older chickens, you could dump the chick bedding into the big chickens' run, and they will probably scratch through it and eat some of the chick feed.

Thanks! These are our first dozen

 

[NatJ]

Thanks! These are our first dozen

In that case, I would mostly try to reduce waste going forward, but not try too hard to make them eat the spilled feed.

Moving the feeder to a different part of the brooder may help a little bit, because then the spilled feed is not right under the feeder, so they are a little more likely to see it and eat it. Of course then they start spilling feed in a new spot, which is why this only helps a little bit, not a lot.

 

[Debbie292d]

It's the kind pictured. It is raised but I think we may need to dump our bedding and restart, as it's getting pretty deep now from sprinkling over new poops. Far as I can tell they're just super messy. They're not tipping the feeder over but just pulling tons out and dropping as much as they're eating

You could try hang it up from the ground floor by just an inch or so but they'll still wind up jumping up into it. If your brooder is a tote or something like that, you can get a narrow stick to put across it to hang it from. I'd be sure they can't get underneath it though, so just up a little higher should help.

 

[MidwestRooster]

I've found that the type of feeder you are using tends to result in spilled feed for chicks. I have a few of these types and my chicks barely spill anything. I suggest finding something or building something to elevate the feeder a few inches above the pine shavings in the brooder to keep the chicks from dragging shavings into the feeder.

 

[MGG]

Your chicks are probably big enough for pellets, those reduce waste significantly. A different feed that's a mini pellet or starter pellet would help a lot. I use Purina flock raiser pellets as soon as they're big enough to eat them.

 

[FrostRanger]

I've found that the type of feeder you are using tends to result in spilled feed for chicks. I have a few of these types and my chicks barely spill anything. I suggest finding something or building something to elevate the feeder a few inches above the pine shavings in the brooder to keep the chicks from dragging shavings into the feeder.
View attachment 3817895

Your chicks are probably big enough for pellets, those reduce waste significantly. A different feed that's a mini pellet or starter pellet would help a lot. I use Purina flock raiser pellets as soon as they're big enough to eat them.

This.
I switched to that kind of feeder this year in an effort to reduce waste and they wasted so much less food! I went from finding piles to finding barely anything. I also got them on pellets by 3 1/2 weeks (started mixing them in with their crumbles when they were close to 3 weeks old) and that further reduced what little waste I had. Definitely give both a try! They work!

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

I've found that the type of feeder you are using tends to result in spilled feed for chicks. I have a few of these types and my chicks barely spill anything. I suggest finding something or building something to elevate the feeder a few inches above the pine shavings in the brooder to keep the chicks from dragging shavings into the feeder.
View attachment 3817895

I use a feeder like this after 3 weeks, finding the chicks use it easier. I can even have the top open and thry dont spill it

 

[nuthatched]

Remove the feeder, they'll clean up.
They're chickens, that's what they do.

 

[MamaPoult]

Our chicks are 2 weeks old. We have a chick feeder that they are constantly wasting a large portion of the food by dumping it on the ground. If I let the feeder go empty - will all of them find food from the pine bedding? Or is that too mean?

Nope not too mean! I do it all the time with my little brats. There will always be waste but it's ok to let them figure out that they have to eat some off the ground!