What Do Baby Chicks Eat? (Most People Get This Wrong!)

Today I’m gonna talk about what baby chicks eat.

Sometimes you go to the store and you buy those little, anybody little, newborn baby chicks, and also sometimes you’ll have a hen, and she’ll hatch out her own little chicky babies.

A lot of people just don’t understand what those teeny-weeny little things eat.

That’s what I’m gonna talk about today. Let’s go.

🐥 First Few Days Without Food? Here’s Why

Little newborn chicky babies don’t eat for the first three days of their life.

That’s how they are able to ship them to the stores — because they don’t have to put food or water in the boxes. The reasoning behind that is very ingenious. When Mama chick is hatching them out, the eggs don’t all hatch at the exact same time.

So there’s like a three-day variation, and she’ll stay on her nest. Some chicks will hatch and they don’t eat, just stay with her, hiding under her, while the brothers and sisters are still hatching.

After three days, she leaves the nest with all of the little chicks at the same time. That’s how it works.

By the time they leave the nest, some chicks will be three days old, some two, and a few just one day old.

🧺 What Happens to Unhatched Eggs?

Sometimes, when mama leaves the nest with her babies, one to three eggs are left unhatched. She’ll leave with the majority — survival instinct tells her to care for the living.

But if the nest is on the ground, she might return in the evening and sit on those eggs for one more night.

If the eggs don’t hatch by the next day, get rid of them.

You might see a late egg hatch the second night she returns, but usually after that, she doesn’t come back. She might try to push the egg away and stick with her babies.

Don’t touch the eggs. Don’t crack them. Just leave them overnight and dispose of them the next day.

🐤 What Do Teeny-Tiny Chicks Eat?

Mama’s little tiny chicky babies start out eating teeny-weeny specks of food.

They’re the size of a cotton ball, so the food has to be tiny. Sometimes you’ll see them pecking the ground and wonder what they’re eating — it’s that small.

Stores sell a food called chick starter. I always buy unmedicated.

Sometimes the feed still looks too big, even for those tiny chicks. So, I’ll crush it up using a medicine bulb, just to baby them a little.

🐓 Lucky If You Have a Mama Hen

If you’ve got a mama hen, put out the chick starter and she’ll show them what to do.

That’s a blessing! Mama hens make things so much easier. They’re more attentive and way more effective at raising their babies.

I’ve noticed that when mama hatches and raises them, the chicks grow up stronger, smarter, and healthier.

That’s not to say you can’t do it yourself — you absolutely can if you bought them from the store. They’ll grow up just fine. Still, mama teaches them things that we just can’t.

🥣 Natural Whole Food Alternatives

When you buy chicks from the store, remember to grab chick starter — but also, anything really tiny will work.

I’ve ground up whole corn into a fine powder using my Nutribullet — they’ll eat that. I’ve also ground whole oats, which works great too.

In my mind, feeding them whole food early on makes them healthier.

🪨 Don’t Forget Chick Grit

Offer chick grit!

It’s like ground-up stone, extra small. As soon as chicks start eating, they need grit to digest their food.

Sometimes I’ll just put sand in their container — they’ll peck around, pick tiny bits, and use that as grit.

💧 Water is Life – But Be Careful

Obviously, little chicks need water, too.

But beware — they’ll drown in a deep water bowl. It’s surprising, but those little cotton balls are determined, rambunctious, and will hop right into the water.

Once wet, they can’t jump back out because they’re too heavy.

So, buy a small chick waterer, or use something super shallow, like a pie plate. If they do get in, they can just stand in it and walk right out.