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Clarabelle

food and treats

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Hi all,

 

Day 4, and the girls seem ok so far, but I have a few questions...

 

Do you fill the grub right up? The Omlet guy filled ours up and it still has loads of pellets in it. Should I throw them away and give the girls fresh? Seems a shame to waste all that lovely food, but they aren't eating a great deal at the moment.

 

Also, are hens a bit neophobic when it comes to food? I gave them a bowl of mashed potato, butternut squash and broccoli yesterday and they ate hardly any. I thought these were supposed to be favourites. I guess they probably didn't have treats on the Omlet farm so they may just need to get used to variety.

 

Thanks,

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Don't throw the pellets away...they will eat them eventually....and as you say it would be a terrible waste.

 

It might be a good idea not to overfill the grub at this stage.

 

One they start laying their appetites quadruple and then you will be filling it to the brim!!

 

re treats....it is just a case of experimenting at this stage.. They all have different tastes. Sweetcorn (rinsed) always goes down well.

 

Don't give them too much in the way of treats though....it is a bit like giving children sweets....they don't eat their tea properly afterwards. :lol:

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Also, are hens a bit neophobic when it comes to food? I gave them a bowl of mashed potato, butternut squash and broccoli yesterday and they ate hardly any. I thought these were supposed to be favourites. I guess they probably didn't have treats on the Omlet farm so they may just need to get used to variety.

 

In case it helps - day 5 here, and I have been introducing one new food per day, a small amount given in mid afternoon (the order in which I introduced them is just chance, not planned!):

 

Day 1: raisins (politely received)

Day 2: broccoli (they didn't recognise it as food until the next day)

Day 3: dried meal-worms (very popular)

Day 4: two dessertspoonfuls of tinned (in water) sweetcorn (ecstatically pounced on)

 

Oh, and three cherry tomatoes cut in half on day 3: I think they ate only the seeds out of the tomatoes, though.

 

Edited to add: also six grapes on day 2 but, as with the broccoli, they didn't seem to recognise these as food so perhaps it was all still too new.

 

Rachel

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Thanks for the advice everyone! I definitely won't throw the pellets away - they are getting through them, but only very slowly. It's now day 5 and they still aren't near the bottom of the Grub.

 

They absolutely love grapes, soaked bread and pasta, but I'm yet to try sweetcorn as I buy it frozen rather than tinned. Can I just give it to them thawed or do I need to cook it?

 

I managed to pick my Gingernut up today and she seemed fine about it, but my Pepperpot is definitely more flighty and feisty.

 

I'm going to let them free range tomorrow if the weather is ok! I can't wait and I know they can't either, they're so keen to get out.

 

They've got cooked mixed vegetables as a treat tomorrow, so I guess they'll get some sweetcorn there. Perhaps I'll use it to lure them back into the run.

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Glad they are settling in well Claire!

They will become more tame when they start laying. They generally 'crouch' when they come into lay and are easier to grab :lol::lol:

Thawed sweetcorn will be fine for them. :D:D

 

Thanks :) I think Annie was doing that today a bit actually, she seemed quite submissive when I picked her up and happily sat tucked under my arm for a while. Cute. Fingers crossed she will lay soon - the Omlet guy seemed to think they were both nearly ready.

 

Can you tell from the roundness of their bottoms? I could always tell when my female finches were gravid as they had round bottoms. Mind you, the chooks bums are much fluffier .

 

I'll thaw some sweetcorn for tomorrow afternoon then and watch the frenzy!

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