baby chicken-please help

Re: baby chicken-please help

Vicky RVN — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:51:41 GMT

Aww sorry to hear that, you tried you best for him though x

Re: baby chicken-please help

Louise B — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:45:34 GMT

Hi, Sorry to hear about yogurty Snowb. But, as you said, you have done your best. xxx

Re: baby chicken-please help

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:01:08 GMT

aww sorry to hear it but like you say he had some pleasure in life. And a bit of quality and love is better than none. I am sure more will cross your path soon

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:12:50 GMT

hi all, bad news, yougurty didn't make it.

they guy i asked to look after him was really gutted! sounded like he did all that he could for him, was eating/drinking and warm but still didnt pull through so maybe wasn't ment to be for the little guy. least he died warm and full and not in the rain and cold like when i found him.

but just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the advice and support, dont think he would have made it that far without it.

and least i no what to do for the nxt one i come across!

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:03:56 GMT

hey everyone

he was doing well yesterday, had a really quiet night, only woke up in the morning when i changed his hot water bottle.

unfortunatly i had already booked a flight to see my OH on a different island, but i left yogurty with one of the other volunteers and he said he would be happy to look after him. i told him to txt if any probs, no txt so am confident he's well, waiting for an update email from the volunteer at the mo!

did try to upload a picture, but wouldnt work!! you just go to insert media right? will have to try again.

thank you all for the support and advice, was very much appriciated, so nice to have everyones experiences at the touch of a button! x

Re: baby chicken-please help

Caro Laithwaite VN — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:48:21 GMT

I second that constant updates for yougarty (or whatever the name is) please and pics if poss

Re: baby chicken-please help

Louise B — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:22:10 GMT

Fab. Goodluck! Let us know how you get on - and piccies please! x

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:40:00 GMT

thank you, will make sure he sits in the sun for a bit. and the egg shells will have to do for calcium, dont think they no what a chicken pellets are. only have children multivit here, would that be ok? wont be a fatty they only have scawny things here from chickens to cats to people!! and will try and find a toy.

no ovens in indonesia, well not that i've ever seen one! but we do have a microwave so will try heating up some rice and find a sock, flip flops all the way here too! but am sure i can pick up some cheap ones somewhere.

thanks everyone for their advice, he's really settled now, bearly a cheep! and i think he ate some tomato by himself! YEY! gonna have to ask for a chicken smilie to be found!!

hopefully he'll pull through x

Re: baby chicken-please help

A Little TLC — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:53:56 GMT

Love lil chikkies!! Egg feed is great for them. couple of maggots believe it or not now and then too, they do tend to go for them as they can see them wiggling! In the hospital we would give these and chick crumb - of course depends if you can get hold of it. Pretty much everything peeps have said up there! ^

Give him a feather duster or an old cuddly toy or something, just for him to cuddle up to like mum. sometimes if the are lonely its worth putting an old alarm clock - )obviously the ticking sort!) so they feel its mums heartbeat. strange but true! scatter a few bits of food on the floor for him to to encourage him to learn to forage.

Used to get these guys in every now and then, usually fell off a lorry carrying them off for growing for meat :( so you may find he grows to have very thick set legs and a lot of weight, they don't live that long unfortunatly cos of the way they are bred. having said that, might be ok and not a poor little fattie!!

They do suffer from bendy legs if they don't get enough vitamin D and calcium, you can use calcium supplements or the egg shell as said above, and for the vit D either a UV bulb or access to sunlight :) ummmm, think thats it.....

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:42:50 GMT

[quote user="Caro Laithwaite"]

could just go and kidnap a chic from outside the owners if they appear would probably find it highly amusing what you are up to. If caught try and look as pathetic as the chicken. Locals often think foreigners are weird so play to it

[/quote]

Made me laugh! indonesians think i'm odd enough already and now you've made me laugh at a computer screen and also want to amuse the locals more by making me steal a chicken!!

hotwater bottle worked, now of my lap and in cardboard box. days are warm but nights are cold as near a volcano, higher altitude. still not eating, how long can i leave this without having to force feed?

Re: baby chicken-please help

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:39:15 GMT

Also if you can get some dried beans or rice and fill up a sock or cut end of a pillow case you can put it in the oven and heat it slowly. then place it with a towel or sheet over it for warmth. just be careful with the oven and keep watch so the cloth doesn't catch fire. you can spray the fabric with water to lower the temp of the fabric but keep the heat in the beans while it's cooking. Be very careful the beans.rice can get very hot, but should hold the heat a bit longer than the water bottles. Warming large stones is another option, I couldn't recommend microwaving stones because some contain metals which would cause a horrible reaction. The beans and rice might be an option but I wouldn't know the correct times for them, i don't personally use microwaves.

Re: baby chicken-please help

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:31:25 GMT

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:23:08 GMT

i think it was cold and possibly lonely so its sitting on me under my jumper! hope it'll be warm enough in my room, gonna hunt out an empty bottle!

tried to upload a picture of it so you cud guess the age! but i couldn't! not sure if i'm doing it right or the connection is to slow!

thank you for ur help x

Re: baby chicken-please help

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:19:52 GMT

As it is in indonesia l am guessing it should be hot or at least humid there unlike britain which is just plain freezing

Re: baby chicken-please help

Louise B — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:05:01 GMT

Hi,

Dried food will be fine - but crush it down to a mash. Not too fine - if it is a powder the bird will still eat it but will take longer to pick each bit up so will not gain weight as quickly.

Cheeping - at that age they tend to cheap to indicate discomfort with some aspect of their life. Either it is hungry, thirsty or it is lonely. A happy chick tends to be a relatively quiet one. My birds are feed restricted and they tend to cheap a lot (accept immediately post-feeding when they are full). They also cheap more when if I house them individually and this settles down as they get used to being individually housed.

It will need a heat source of some description even if it is just a drinks bottle filled with hot water (unless the temp in indonesia/your bedroom is always hot enough day & ngiht for a chick).

Shreaded toilet roll (soft stuff) will be fine. Sitting the box on your computer monitor is a very clever way of providing heat. Not sure if it is sufficient though. Could be too much so remember the rule of temp gradients.

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:56:17 GMT

[quote user="Princess Ophelia Hermione MacBeth"]

If you don't have any access to any official heat sources, etc (I think you are at a wildlife vets but I am not sure) then get some 1 litre cordial plastic cordial bottles (or similar), fill them with hot (not boiling) water, wrap in a towel and use to form a hot areas in a box. Very important to get the temp gradient though as chicks are also prone to heat stress (but less of a problem in chicks than in adult chickens).

[/quote]

sorry was typing my message! thanks for the idea!

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:54:52 GMT

thank you so much for your advice, will read through again and digest slowly. will try scambled eggs as not fish or tinned cat food, only dry, can i soak this? tried tomato earlier but as i mentioned didn't eat it but did drink the juice!

not sure they know what a hotwater bottle is in indonesia! only hot source i have is my computer battery!

i have shreded toilet roll, is this ok? it just keeps cheeping, is there anything i can do or is it calling for its mum?

there are many chickens and young here varying in all ages but unfortunatly they belong to people, not that i would know who so cant steal one!! dam! going to keep in it a cardboard box for now in a bedroom as their are so many dogs as well, but normally they leave the chickens alone, so hoping this will be the case if it survives and gets older. will def be back for advice!

Re: baby chicken-please help

Louise B — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:43:24 GMT

Re: baby chicken-please help

Louise B — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:40:40 GMT

Hi, remembered who the Tiggywinkles lass is: A little TLC.

She's your woman. There is nothing she doesn't know about feeding fledglings home mdade diets, etc (I think)!

Re: baby chicken-please help

Louise B — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:27:53 GMT

Hi Snowb,

Loos like you have a new pet

There is not much I can add to the feeding advice already given. I would go with StephB's advice primarily in terms of food so if you can access some tinned cat food or some fish to mix in with some boiled rice and veggies fab. Otherwise they love scrambled egg mixed in with veggies/rice/porridge, etc. If you go down the scrambled egg route it would be worth crushing some gg shells to a fine powder and mixing with the food to increase the calcium content as it will otherwise potentially be low. However, I am not an expert on homemade chick food by any means - the person I would message on here urgently for better feeding info is the wildlife lass who worked at Tiggywinkles - the one looking for a trainee nurse job at the moment. I am really sorry but I cannot remember name - help me out here guys - but will search for one of her threads shortly.

They will instinctively peck around so food sprinkled all over the floor is likely to be eaten (often more so than that in a bowl - I usually feed mine from the floor for the first couple of days as I get better growth/healthy/survival rates that way).

The other crucial things from a young chick's point of view is warmth - for a very young chick the ambient temp wants to be up round the 30 centigrade mark (I spot brood mine which means I use a heat lamp over a pen (the heat in the centre of the pen - directly under the light is 30 - 40degrees and the periphery of the pen is about 20 - 25degrees) and they can move in/out of the heat gradient to suit themselves. Avoidance of drafts is also very important. Basically all the same neonatal stuff we advise puppy/cat owners.

Drinking - although chickens are not as dumb as turkeys, I have had problems in the past of chicks literally dying of dehydration as, occasionally, they don't know how to drink and will ignore water even if it is right beside them. This is rare but can be helped by a) dipping the chicks beak in the water bowl b) dropping a bit of feed into the bottom of the water bowl to encourage investigative behaviour. I think it happens because they cannot see the water!

Dependent on how old the chick is and its previous experiences it may imprint on you as the handler.I am guessing it is unlikely now but it is a possibility. Even if it doesn't it will become very tame. I don't think you'll have any really problems reintroducing it to other chickens when its older - other than the usual problems of hens establishing a pecking order. If it survives I'll give you some advice on that later if you like but it is basically very similar to introducing rabbits, etc.

Company - ideally some avian company of the same age but I am guessing that is not an option. Cross-fostering (putting chick with another chick & mum) will be risky for the survival of the chick but, provided you get everything else right, having another chick will increase likelihood of survival so if you can borrow a chick from elsewhere they both will do well together.

Bedding - wood shaving, dry leaves, etc - avoid shredded paper. Dependent on the age/size of the chick don't give too deep a layer of wood shavings, etc as they have been known to suffocate - they scratch down looking for food, the walls cave in and they are not strong enough to dig their way out. A hot water bottle wrapped in a fleece or similar and shaped to have a nest bit would be appreciated.

This is a commercial chicken producer management/rearing manual. So of the advice is not applicable but they are the geniuses in chicken rearing to avoid losses so alot of the advice is very useful re: husbandry, etc.

http://www.aviagen.com/308psm/308psm.htm

Good luck.

Okay, adding to post now:

I cannot really comment on survival of your chick without knowing more about the injury and its history (wild guinea fowl or domestic chicken, etc) but I work in chicken research and I always obtain my birds as day old chicks (within a few hours of hatching) and rear them in the absence of mother (this is normal practice for commerical chickens) and this does not affect them in terms of surviving as far as I can tell. Under good commercial conditions, the mortality rate is probably about 4-5% in the first couple of weeks and my experience of birds would support that. If they haven't died by then they tend to do very well. You do get 'fading' chicks but I think some of 'fading chick' is down to not drinking so I tend to intervene and nurse mine by encouraging them to drink or confining them in a small space so that they cannot get away from the food/water bowl as this increases the likelihood of them finding/reaching necessary supplies. If they still don't drink/eat you can rear them the same way as fledglings (no gape response so necessary to open mouth) but my experience of this is they don't do well under these circumstances and find this stressful.

I'll come back to this but I will timeout shortly so better post!

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:45:17 GMT

thank you caro, did feel like a fool, but not to much anymore as everyone is being so helpful!

am writting it all down, please it it coming.

stephB- classic, yougurt didn't even no it would like this! have a red coca cola lid will try putting the food in this!

Re: baby chicken-please help

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:23:04 GMT

oh also... ironically yohgurt! :)

Re: baby chicken-please help

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:20:20 GMT

have you got any access to cat food (with not too much chicken in it for obvious reasons)? or scrambled egg, lots of nutrients, sweet corn, beans, umm fish! Omega oils are really good for them, over cooked toast crushed up, keep a low dish of water in. Also if you have a red container it will help the little one go for the food.

Re: baby chicken-please help

Caro Laithwaite VN — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:19:15 GMT

no need to feel a fool we all care at what we do or we wouldnt do it some are fools for baby animals some baby humans some both some none we are all ourselves

Re: baby chicken-please help

Snowb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:10:30 GMT

ohh tried tomato. didn't eat it but did drink! Yey. still feel a bit of a fool for picking it up tho!