How to Take Care of Your Baby Chicks

Chicks can be raised and cared for indoors.

Baby chicks are pets which can be easy to care for if the proper care items are provided. Often, chick care is as simple as providing healthy food and clean water, comfortable bedding inside of a box and providing a heating lamp. Keeping the chicks inside where they are warm and can be monitored works well in raising them until they are ready to be moved outside, which is usually around four to five weeks of age.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Housing the Chicks

1. Choose an empty cardboard box for the chick housing. The box should be at least two square feet per chick.

2. Cut small holes in the cardboard box to provide ventilation.

3. Line the bottom of the box with pine shavings about one inch in thickness.

Food and Water

1. Purchase a chick waterer and chick feeder. These items help to avoid messes and injuries to the chicks. Feeders and waterers can be found online and in some pet stores, at an inexpensive price.

2. Fill the bottle of the chick waterer with clean water and replace the base. Turn the waterer upside down to allow a small amount of water to fill the base. This water is enough to keep the chicks hydrated while avoiding the risk of drowning.

3. Purchase chick feed and fill the bottle in the chick feeder with this feed. Replace the base and flip upside down, allowing gravity to to fill the base with food. The food will continue to fill the dish as the chicks eat, and the small amount allowed in the dish at once prevents the chicks from making a mess with their food.

4. Sprinkle grit on top of the chick feed to aid in digestion. Grit can be either sand, parakeet gravel or canary gravel. A special grit made just for chicks is also available online or in some farm animal care stores.

Providing Warmth and Safety

1. Purchase a 250-watt infrared heat lamp from a pet store. These lamps are usually available in the reptile section.

2. Suspend the lamp above the chick housing. The light should hang in the middle, high enough above the box to prevent the chicks from reaching it. The distance of the light can be increased as the chicks grow older and need less heat. A red lamp helps to allow the chicks to sleep at night, where a white lamp would cause sleep troubles.

3. Maintain a temperature of 95 degrees in the first week. The temperature should go down by five degrees each week until the chicks are ready to move outside.

4. Place netting over the top of the cardboard box to keep the chicks safe in their housing. Without netting the chicks may manage to fly to the edge of the box and may fall.

Tips & Warnings

• To pick the chicks up, slide one hand below the belly and hold the other hand on top of the chick gently, but firm enough to prevent any falls.

• Feed chicks that have been medicated an unmedicated chick feed. If the chicks have not received vaccinations, they should be fed a medicated feed.

• Keep the chicks warm at all times and prevent drafts from the housing area.

• Handling the chicks too much should be avoided, as it can cause injury.

• Avoid cedar shavings as a bedding. The oils can cause respiratory illness in chickens.

• Avoid using a bowl or dish for water and food. Chicks can easily drown in these items.

References

• LionsGrip.com: Chicken Feed
• Stromberg's Chicks and Game Birds Unlimited: Care for Baby Chicks
• My Pet Chicken: Caring for Baby Chicks

Resources

• The Easy Chicken for Beginners: Chicken Facts
• The Easy Chicken for Beginners: Feeders and Waterers