# Chicks



## Guest (Feb 27, 2011)

I keep finding that people say chicks are high in fat or not a good source of food or whatever... and I have to wonder why sometimes... It's more than common knowledge that animals in the wild will almost always take advantage of young/baby prey...

Now, I'm not saying feed your tegus chicks everyday, I'm just wondering why this is...

I know that they're low in calcium seeing as they'd just hatched and are still developing but this is something that can easily be fixed with a calcium supplement or feeding something that's high in calcium along with a chick. (at least this is how it works when I'm feeding my dogs/ferrets raw food and whole prey)

Another reason I've heard is because they're high in fat... 

But reading Rodent Pro's nutrient analysis page says otherwise... Unless I'm reading it wrong?


Adult Mouse 10g:
Crude Protein: 55.8%
Crude Fat: 23.6%
Calcium: 2.98%
Phosphorus: 1.72%

Day-old Chick:
Crude Protein: 64.9%
Crude Fat: 22.4%
Calcium: 1.69%
Phosphorus: 1.22%

Can someone elaborate?


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## Guest (Feb 27, 2011)

I had a hatch of chicks three weeks ago and have another comming on now ...

There isnt much to a baby chick lots off fluff mostly ... 

What was in the egg to start with is all a chick is ... 

They can live for 24 to 48 hours and not eat or drink any thing ..

They live off the absorbed yolk right before they hatch .... 

I would think ground turkey is far fatter than any chick ...


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## chelvis (Feb 27, 2011)

I have fed chicks out before with no problems. Really the problem is that people want to feed just one thing and mice are easy. Now tegus do best when you mix things up. Now chicks will be fine once in a while, just like mice are good every now and than, ground trukey is fine for a bit, fish is a nice thing to add, rats and rabbit meat, chicken, fruits... the list of foods is endless. Why people have a problem with chicks is becuase they are not a complete meal (ie low in calcium) and if you tell a new reptile owner that they are a good food sorce often times they will forget to supplement and their animal sufferes. 

So there is nothing wrong with feeding out young chicks (i'd make sure they are frozen like the ones a prorodents just to avoid a nasty peck). Just make sure to feed somthing else in the same feeding week.


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## Bubblz Calhoun (Feb 27, 2011)

_Like previously stated chicks are fine to feed when supplemented and or fed with something else. My crew loved chicks and when fed with something else (rat, quail, turkey or what ever) they went for the chick first. Unless it was rabbit,... then it was a toss up :-D lots of head twitching and tongue flicking between the 2. 

But just like everything else,.. feed in moderation. Chicks do soften their stool and too many can cause diarrhea. _


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## Guest (Feb 27, 2011)

Yeah, I'm not saying feed chicks every day. Variety is the key to a healthy animal.

I was just getting the impression that they were to be fed RARELY because I've heard of them having no nutritional value (Sorry, not gonna believe this one lol), or that they're high in fat, or whatever...

Personally, I see them as being no better or worse (aside from lack of calcium) than rats or mice.


Edit:
I'd imagine that the chicks would cause a softer stool because of the lack of calcium. I know that when feeding dogs/cats/ferrets raw their stool will always be softer or even runny when there is little to no bone in the meal. To fix this, I'd always add a little extra bone/calcium and it would harden their stool right up.


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## chelvis (Feb 27, 2011)

AH rabbit my tegus love rabbit. Just found a guy locally that does rabbits for raw dog food diets. He sells cube rabbit meat which is very conveniant. Watched him make it and its simply skin the rabbit and send it through the grinder. So there is bone, organ and meat in easy to use package. My tegus go nuts for it. No runny stool eaither becuase there is alot of calcium/bone in it. They get that about once a week.


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## Guest (Feb 27, 2011)

I can buy pucks of whole ground chicken, beef, lamb, etc so they include the bones, organs, meat. Much like your rabbit cubes.

I buy them for my ferrets when we're low on whole prey.


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## Guest (Feb 28, 2011)

While thinking about feeding chicks It made me wonder ....

If a chick is just what is in the egg to begin with then why wouldn`t feeding the egg be the same as feeding the chick ...???

It could only be of a more absorbable form ....

I am sure that no one that raises chicks [gut loads them before feeding ] as chicks live for 48 hours or more on the yolk that is absorbed on hatch ...


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## chelvis (Feb 28, 2011)

I think its the form that everything is in. Bone is a different form of calcium than what is in the yoke, the protine in yoke is more of a pre form of protine than when it is when assembled into different organs, protines, and what not. Now vitamins wouldnt really change much. It is a very interesting concept though, that a day old chick is nothing more than a slowly cooked yoke. Never thought of it like that. 

Now they do sell 10 day old chicks as feeders my guess is those are fed a "gut load" diet, maybe not too different than what is fed to production chickens.

Have to admit i did not pay much attention durning poltury production in school, i was more a beef and goat person. Love me some beef!


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## Guest (Feb 28, 2011)

I wouldn't think that a chick is just what's in an egg... 

It's a baby animal PLUS a yolk sac. They just use the rest of their yolk sac as nourishment.

It has a heart full of taurine, it has muscles, it has a liver which is full of vitamin A and vitamin D, its skin is full of vitamin D, brain full of nutrients... And then it has a yolk sac which it's still absorbing.

I'm not really sure what you mean when you say a chicken is just "what's in an egg". When you say that, I just think of that if you'd crack a baby chick open, egg yolk and white would pop out, haha.

I'd have to think there's more nutrients to their various body parts and innards and not just what an egg offers.


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