Instructions
Housing the Chicks
Choose an empty cardboard box for the chick housing. The box should be at least two square feet per chick.
Cut small holes in the cardboard box to provide ventilation.
Line the bottom of the box with pine shavings about one inch in thickness.
Food and Water
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.
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.
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.
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
Purchase a 250-watt infrared heat lamp from a pet store. These lamps are usually available in the reptile section.
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.
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.
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.
How to Take Care of Your Baby Chicks
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.