Chick toys! What your chicks need, when, and why

Your chicks need toys. Truly, they do.

As you’ll learn in this article, decades-worth of research has shown that chicks reared with toys do better. They’re healthier, happier, and better able to navigate their worlds.

Decades-worth of science has also shown that chicks go through major developmental changes in their first two weeks of life. And your chicks will thrive the most when they have the toys that aid their development at each stage.

Now, let’s dive into the details so you know exactly which toys your chicks need, when they need them, and the science of why.

I’ve also distilled all this information down for you into a simple two-page pdf, Your day-by-day guide to chick toys!

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This post contains affiliate links for my favorite products from Amazon and Chewy. As an associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

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What are chick toys?

I’m defining “toy” here very loosely as any object you add to your chicks’ brooder space that they find interesting, whether this is a stick to perch on from your backyard or a xylophone to peck at that you specially ordered.

Toys don’t have to be expensive—you can find plenty of objects around your house or in your yard that you can use for chick toys.

Or, you can follow my lead, and go nuts ordering pet toys online!

Why do chicks need toys?

The science is clear on this—chicks in enriched environments just do better.^1-3

Enriched environments are simply environments with space, bedding (typically), and toys! And by all measures, chicks raised in enriched environments are happier and healthier, both as chicks and later on as adults.

For example, chicks reared with toys:

• Have stronger immune systems⁴
• Produce higher-quality eggs as adults⁵
• Are less aggressive to flock members⁶
• Cope better during stressful events^{3, 7}
• Have reduced fear and an increased ability to handle new situations calmly,^8-9 including well into adulthood after the toys have long been removed!¹⁰
• Acquire better spatial skills that, once again, carry over into adulthood—chickens reared with toys as chicks are better able to forage and find food, to perch, and to navigate space.^11-13

Toys are more than just fun for your chicks—they’re valuable tools, providing your chicks with the skills they need to live their fullest lives.

And if that hasn’t convinced you, chicks get a lot of joy out of playing with new toys too!¹⁴

What kind of toys do your chicks need?

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Your chicks go through several different developmental stages in their first couple weeks of life, and they actually have what scientists call “sensitive periods” for learning certain skills within those stages.¹⁵

So, for example, your chicks have a sensitive period for imprinting on a caretaker figure in their first few days of life. If they don’t imprint during that time, they will never imprint. The sensitive period has forever closed.

And because chicks feel safer when they’re imprinted, you’ll want to ensure your chicks imprint on you or a suitable object in those first few days. And, yes, there are “toys” that can aid you in doing this! More on this below…

And here’s another example. In their second week of life, your chicks may go through a sensitive period for spatial learning.^{12, 15-16} This is the time when their brains are most susceptible to learning about topography and spatial navigation.

As one scientist explains, “It appears that day 10 may mark the beginning of a brief stage of development when each chick forms its own topographical map of its living area.”¹⁵

He continues:

“If so, days 10 and 11 may represent a sensitive period for spatial learning, much the same as that for filial imprinting, with the optimal age for spatial learning being on day 10.”

— Dr. Lesley Rogers, University of New England

So, when your chicks are around 10 days old, you’ll want to provide the right toys to help them develop their spatial skills to their fullest capacity.

Bottom line here: you’ll need to make sure you introduce the right types of toys at the right time for your chicks to get their full benefit—and you’ll learn exactly how to do that below!

How to choose the best toys for each of your chicks’ developmental stages

Your chicks will go through 4 main stages of development during their first two weeks of life. These stages are:

1. Imprinting (Days 1-3)

2. Early exploration (Days 4-7)

3. Complex awareness (Day 8)

4. Spatial navigation (Days 9-14)

Now, let’s talk about which toys your chicks need for each developmental stage.

Days 1-3: Help your chicks imprint with imprinting objects.

Aside from a good imprinting object, your chicks don’t need toys their first few days of life.

Imprinting is the strong social bond a chick forms with an animal or object in her first few days of life.

As Cambridge University scientist, Brian McCabe, described it, imprinting “is characterized by an animal following and establishing a social attachment to an object early in life as a result of being exposed to that object.”¹⁷

Chicks are emotionally attached to their imprinting object, and become distressed if they’re separated from it.^46-47

In the natural world, that “object” is the mother hen, whereas in the laboratory, that object may be any number of items, such as a stuffed animal,¹⁸ box,¹⁹ cylinder,²⁰ or even a digital animation.²¹

When you get chicks, you can imprint them on you if you have the time and desire. I’ll be writing a detailed article about exactly how to do this very soon.

And if you don’t want your chicks imprinted on you, then you’ll want to consider providing an object (or toy) for them to imprint on instead. The best object for your chicks to imprint on is their brooder plate. This is the closest object to a mother hen you can provide.

There are a couple of things you can do to ensure your chicks imprint on the brooder plate. The simplest thing is to hang a red LED light off of one corner.

Chicks tend to approach red objects readily,^21-24 and the red light will make sure the brooder plate sticks out to them above all else.

The second thing you can consider is to add comfort feathers to the edges of the brooder plate. This, of course, makes the brooder plate feel even more like a mother hen. If you don’t want to purchase comfort feathers, you could still hang strips of cloth from the sides of the brooder plate to mimic the protection of the mother hen.

Another thing you can do is actually place a stuffed hen near the brooder. The downside to this is that the stuffed hen will get pooped on, so you’ll need to do some cleanup, and you may want to toss it out at the end of the brooding period. But in the meantime, your chicks will love it!

I’m getting chicks again in a few weeks, and I’ll be experimenting with using only the head and neck region of a stuffed hen in the brooder. I’ll cut the head and neck off the body and sew up the opening to hide the stuffing. I plan to tuck the head/neck just under the edge of the brooder plate so the face is at chick level.

Why would I do this? Lab experiments have shown that chicks are most attracted to the head and neck region of stuffed hens.²⁵ They don’t really care about the stuffed body if they can’t brood under it. It’s the face and eyes, then, that provide the most comfort.⁴⁸

So, by putting only the stuffed head and neck near the entrance to the brooder, chicks will be able to actually see the eyes of the hen when they enter and exit the brooder. This most closely represents the experience they’d have with a live hen in nature, as hens are known to put their faces near their chicks’ faces when their chicks enter and exit from underneath the hens’ warm bodies.²⁶

Days 4-7: The best toys for your chicks’ early exploration phase.

After your chicks have become accustomed to their surroundings in their first few days of life, consider adding a few things to their brooder.

Chicks at this age love to explore. In the natural world, day 5 or 6 marks the time that chicks finally start to spend a lot of time leaving mama hen’s side and traveling a greater distance away from her.²⁷

The chicks move, peck, and vocalize much more during this time. In short, they’re starting to develop a bit of independence and they have an intrinsic need to explore and learn.

Lab experiments also confirm that lab-raised chicks (raised without a mama hen) begin moving and exploring to a much greater degree around day 5 of life as well²⁸—and perhaps as early as day 4.²⁹

How do you aid your chicks’ intrinsic need for exploration and learning? Oh, there are so many ways!

Your chicks will be naturally interested in any novel objects. However, be aware they may initially show fear or distrust when you introduce a new object—this is called “neophobia.” It’s totally natural and won’t last more than about 24 hours or so.¹ And then after they get used to the new object, they’ll really enjoy learning about its features.

One of the main ways chicks explore at this age is by feeling everything they see with their beaks. They’re constantly pecking, usually with a closed beak, to feel things out^{15, 30}

So, I like to add objects with different textures for them to feel out, such as glass marbles, rubber balls, plastic springs, and wooden bridges.

You can purchase these items or just get creative with things you have around the house. Just make sure the objects you put in the brooder are too large for the chicks to swallow and are toxin-free.

You can also add dangling bird toys at this time. Depending on how you’ve set your brooder up, you could get a dangly toy you hang from the ceiling, or you could get a free-standing dangly play table. But do make sure your chicks aren’t able to break off the dangling parts and ingest them.

You’ll also want to add a little dust bath area for your chicks.³¹ Dustbathing is not only a healthy activity for chickens, but also a pleasurable one.³² Chicks in nature begin learning to dustbathe at about 4 days of age.³³

If you have access to medium- to coarse-grained sand, that’s ideal.^34-37 If you can't find sand, peat moss is another option.^38-40

Put the sand or peat moss in a little shoe box or plastic container and watch your chicks roll around in it and toss it over their little bodies!

Check out the video below to see a little chick dustbathing outdoors in mulch:

And you’ll also want to add some sort of perch for your chicks to play on during this time period.

Adding perches at this early age will help them better navigate 3D space when they’re older.¹¹

But be aware your chicks may not use the perch initially.

Most chicks won’t start perching until the end of their early exploration stage when they’re 7-10 days old,²⁷ and some chicks may not perch until they’re two weeks old.⁴¹ I still recommend adding a perch now, though. That way they’ll have time to get used to it and will perch just as soon as they’re ready.

A low perch will be more valuable at this young age than a higher one.

And, finally, chicks of all ages have the drive to chase insects on the ground and in the air, so, if you want to tap into that, try a laser pointer. They’ll love to chase the laser point around and you’ll love to watch them!

You can see how excited chicks get by a laser pointer in the video below:

Day 8: The best toy to help your chicks develop complex awareness.

Day 8 is a special time for your chicks. Studies have shown a couple different things happen on this day.

First, your chicks can learn to discriminate food from inedible items more quickly around this day than before. In the natural world, mama hens drastically reduce their amount of tidbitting (i.e., food calling) on day 8. Before this day, mama hen typically told the chicks what to eat, and on this day, chicks are at a point where they’re able to recognize food better themselves.²⁷

And second, your chicks begin to focus on complex stimuli during this time period.²⁷ During the first week of life, chicks raised by a mother hen in a barnyard setting fixate primarily on her—they are imprinted to her after all. But on day 8, they stop paying so much attention to their mothers, and begin to really fixate on humans and adult chickens.

Chickens raised in the lab without a mother hen (as well as your hatchery-purchased chicks) also show an increased fixation on humans with the right eye on day 8.²⁷

This fixation around day 8 may represent a special learning period, in which chicks need to learn to recognize differences between adult chickens and their mother, so when they become more mobile in the following days, they return to the right hen.

The fixation at this age could also help them distinguish between friendly animals and predators before they reach their next stage in development, where they venture much further away from their mama hen.

What does this mean for toys?

Well, your chicks will be absolutely fine without any new toys during this time. But, as always, I like to add toys to aid them in their learning. And because this is the time that chicks learn more about complex social beings, I like to add a mirror to their brooder. They’ll love this! And so will you!

Below you can see a video of chickens reacting to a mirror for the first time.

Days 9-14: The best toys for spatial navigation learning.

A lot of development occurs in your chicks’ brains during their 9th through 14th days of life. This is a crucial time period for spatial and motor development. Your chicks will need toys that provide an occlusion experience as well as perches or platforms at multiple vertical levels.

Why your chicks need occlusion toys

In nature, chicks at this age move significantly further away from their mama hen than they have before.²⁷ And by day 10 of life, chicks have much better thermoregulation than they did previously,²⁸ and that means they don’t need to return to their mama hen for warmth as frequently.

So, this is the time chicks begin venturing out of sight of mama. And that’s really important.

Here’s why.

When a chick’s view of her imprinted object (like a mother hen) becomes occluded during this developmental stage, neural development in her hippocampus actually intensifies,⁴² and she’s better able to navigate spatial obstacles to find what she wants when she’s older. ¹²

So, your chicks’ experiences of occlusion during this time period mean they’re better able to navigate their world later on.

And that’s not just true of chicks raised by mama hens. It’s true of chicks raised in laboratories too. Around day 10 or 11 of life, chicks need these occlusion experiences.¹²

So, in your brooder, you’ll want to provide some toys that occlude your chicks’ views of their familiar objects—familiar objects being their brooder plate, feeders and waterers, and even each other.

If you have space, consider adding an animal hideout or tunnel toy at this time. Or add some cardboard boxes, cardboard partitions, or curtain partitions to your brooder for your chicks to explore around—basically anything that occludes their views of their familiar objects.

And one last thing: all occlusion experiences at this time should be voluntary.

Don’t force your chicks behind objects or curtains. They’ll have difficulty learning in a stressed state. Let them explore on their own.

Why your chicks absolutely need multilevel toys

Perching behavior increases quite a bit during days 9-15 of life, and perching behavior at this age will result in many advantages for your birds far down the road, including:

• Better spatial navigation¹¹
• Better escape from attack⁴³
• Lower incidence of laying eggs on the floor⁴⁴
• Less aggression towards flock members⁴⁵

So, if you don’t already have perches in your brooder, be sure to add some now.

And if you have enough room, add multiple perches or platform toys with different levels. I like to add parrot perches and step toys at this time.  

Now’s the time to give your chicks more space (if you can).

This is also a great time to expand the size of your brooder if you’re able to do so.

For example, if you’re brooding your chicks in a cage, consider adjoining it to an additional cage. Or, if you’re brooding them in a puppy pen, add an additional puppy pen. And so on. Or just get creative with some cardboard rooms!

You may also consider adding a mesh exploration tunnel to your brooder door so your chicks can come out of their brooder to see the world is so much bigger than their box. Just add potty pads to the floor of the tunnel to keep cleanup easy. You can put some toys or food in the tunnel too!

And lastly, days 10-12 are also when your chicks really start running, frolicking, and sparring with each other.³³

Frolicking? Really? Yep.

As one scientist describes it:¹⁵

“…An abrupt increase in frolicking, in which the chick runs with its wings raised or flapping towards another chick, sometimes colliding with it, occurs between days 11 and 12.”

— Dr. Lesley Rogers, University of New England

So, the more space you can give your chicks for this active, physical play, the happier they’ll be! And watching them frolic really is so cute!

And you may even consider tossing a little piece of lettuce (or even a noodle) into the brooder to watch your chicks go wild with “food running.”

Food running is when a chick grabs a larger food object (like a worm) and runs around like crazy with the object in her mouth. All the other chicks chase her and try to grab the food from her mouth. It’s hysterical!

You can also add a hanging feeder toy at this time. I like to put lettuce leaves in the feeder and let the chicks go at it for about 10 minutes (and only 10 minutes). You really don’t want them filling up on anything other than their nutritionally balanced chick crumble, so don’t leave the feeder toy out indefinitely.

And just be sure to add some chick grit to your brooder if you give your chicks any food other than their chick crumble.

And just for fun… Music toys!

One particularly popular toy many keepers buy for their chickens is a toy xylophone. Sometimes chickens ignore the xylophone, but other times, they really get into it (as with all toys).

You can see a video of a couple of hens playing with a xylophone below.

I’ll be trying out a xylophone with my next batch of chicks (coming later this month!) as well as a roll up piano.

You can also try out other musical toys with your chickens. Check out the video below to see a chicken band—complete with xylophone, piano, and drums!

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Feeling overwhelmed?

No worries! I’ve distilled all this information down for you into a two-page pdf, Your day-by-day guide to chick toys!

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Save this article for later!

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