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Baby Chicks as Pets or Gifts
In springtime, chicks are often given as new pets or Easter gifts. Those
who give the chicks should help ensure that recipients will have a positive
experience and that chicks will not suffer.
The questionnaire below can be printed out to help recipients review their readiness for raising a chick.
Click here for Printable Copy. *Organizations and stores are free to insert their logo.
Chicks are fun, fuzzy, frisky... &
fragile!
Correct knowledge and care is necessary to protect these
little birds.
Chicks need your help to be safe from hazards they can experience:
Being chilled, legs or wings being
broken, internal injuries, sickness, deformities while growing, pain, loneliness and fear.
A
Chick of Your Own
If you are
considering getting your own chick, you will want to care for it in the careful
ways it deserves and needs. Below are questions to help you be sure you are
ready: ENVIRONMENT
1. Will
your cage or pen (brooder) have areas where the chick can go to get warmer or
cooler as it needs to? _____
2. Do
you know the approximate temperatures your chick needs to be kept at until it has grown its
feathers?
Week 1: _____ Week 2: _____ Week 3: _____ Week 4:
_____ Week 5: _____ Week 6: _____
3. What
kind of flooring will you provide for your chick? ______________
(Hint:
Don’t use newspaper or bare cardboard, because slippery flooring can cause Splayed
Leg deformities.)
4. When
winter comes, will you be able provide a warm shelter, and change frozen water
frequently? _______
5. Will
you be able to provide a coop with at least 2 feet X 2 feet floor space for each
chicken when they grow up? _______
COMPANIONSHIP
1. Will
you have at least two (or three—in case one dies) chicks so your young chick is
never isolated and distressed? _______
2. How
many chicks/chickens do your neighborhood zoning or housing regulations allow
your family to have? _______ hens, ________ roosters
3. If
your chick turns out to be a rooster you can’t keep, to whom can you give him?
____________________
4. If
you decide to not keep your chicken when it’s older, where will you rehome it?
____________________
FOOD
1. What
kind of food will you feed your chick? _______________________
2. Do
you know the dangers of feeding adult chicken feed, bread, seeds, grain, or long
pieces of grass to chicks? _______
3. Do
you know how to determine if your chick needs to eat grit? _______
4. Do
you know how to spot and treat “pasty butt”? __________________________________________
PROTECTION
1. How
will you limit the number times each day a chick is picked up or handed from
one person to another? _______________________________
2. To
prevent dropping, children under what age will be required to be sitting down
when holding a chick? ______
3. Will
you be able to provide reliable protection for keeping curious cats or dogs,
and wildlife away from your chicken? _______
Congratulations
on your new pet!
We hope you and your chick enjoy your new friendship!
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