urgent chick help needed please

J

Jericho

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 February 2008
Messages
2,568
Visit site
Hi - I have just found that my rather silly hen has abandoned her day old chick, as well as kicking out the rest of the eggs. The chick was lying on its side, eyes closed, and cold - I thought it was dead so I picked it up and it gasped so I tried to put it under its mother but the hen started to peck its closed eyes so I have now bought it in the house under a 60w bulb and gave it some water and within 30mins it has perked up, standing up although very wobbly and cheeping a bit although it is obviously a bit worried that its mother is nowhere to be seen.

So what do I do now? I can hand raise it but it will be on its own. How do I encourage it to eat its chick crumbs? Can I mix sugar and milk or something to feed it via a syringe? or should I put it back under the stupid hen and hope her maternal instincts return now she has a healthy chick again.

Help please v v quick? I would rather it was under its mother but not if she is going to attack it / abandon it again (she is a rather young hen herself)

many many thanks
 
I'd say keep it in - do you know any one with one of those red lamps you can borrow?

Shame it's on it's own but mother will prob try peck it if she's tried already - they can be really nasty when they want to be!

My friend puts her chicks in a hamster cage with an infa red lamp.

Not sure about feeding though . . . .
 
My hen was over protective and we had to remove her from her day old chicks that had not seen the light of day! we took her away from them for 5 mins and had to teach the chicks how to eat and drink. I dipped the end of their beaks gently in the water and in the crumbs and they very really catch on the idea. They don't actually need the hen to show them how to do things as they can be very happily raised in an incubator, they just need to be kept warm. Have you thought about taking one of the others away from the hen to be the buddy? As long as they are kept warm they should be fine. Good luck x
 
Keep it under a lamp and out of draughts. Poke its nose into a shallow water container and leave some chick crumbs. It doesn't need anything else. Battery raised chicks are not hand fed and they have no-one to copy from.
 
Thanks all - its really perking up now. There is only one other chick at the moment and that is under another hen (unfortunately she had 2 chicks and one of those has already died) so shall I put that under the lamp?
 
Awww poor little thing, lone chicks can be troublesome so far ive never had a lone chick.
It needs to be under a heat lamp now for at least 6 weeks the above links will give you tempretures but it needs to be very high for the first week. I have ceramic lamps so that there's no artificial lighting but there very expensive. Mine are in there 3rd year & still going strong. Keep out of draughts. You will know if the chick is to warm as it will sit around the edge if to cold it will be directly under the lamp.

Feed wise chick crumb, use an old towel & sprinkle the crumb onto it keep dropping it on & normally this interests chicks enough to start pecking.

It could be quite touch & go im afraid for this chick but all you can do is try.
 
I raised one on its own - started off in the airing cupboard and graduated to hot water bottle with towel over it. Very sweet thing, grew up to be the most vicious ungrateful bloody hen I've ever owned. :)
 
Get a pen, preferably one with a red top, and mimic the hen picking for feed in the chick crumbs. Sort of tap-tap-tap at it. NOT a wind up, I promise. Chick will be fine but probably prefer company, watch you have the bulb high enough.
 
Ladyinred said:
Get a pen, preferably one with a red top, and mimic the hen picking for feed in the chick crumbs. Sort of tap-tap-tap at it. NOT a wind up, I promise. Chick will be fine but probably prefer company, watch you have the bulb high enough.
Click to expand...

agree this works or use your finger to tap - chick will copy and eat chick crumb - good luck

PMSL at hen that turnout out bad - had cockrels like this - they dont last long at out house!
 
Jericho said:
Thanks all - its really perking up now. There is only one other chick at the moment and that is under another hen (unfortunately she had 2 chicks and one of those has already died) so shall I put that under the lamp?
Click to expand...


can you persuade the other hen to adopt this little one?

if not then the abandoned one should be fine with chick crumbs and a little saucer of water. kept warm once it's a bit bigger and stronger it should be ok to go out and learn to be a hen with the others.

of course, it's always possible that its mother knows something we don't... hens are brighter than we give them credit for, and when researchers have examined the corpses of apparently healthy chicks that have died as a result of being abandoned by their mothers they've often had congenital defects internally. It seems that somehow the hens know this.
 
btw where are you? My banty hen hatched chicks yesterday - if you are nearby I could let you have a little companion for it if it makes it through the night!
 
We had a 'pretend' dead chick, it's broody mum was rubbish. After warming it up in my hands we brought it home under a normal lamp bulb (plenty hot enough, the thermometer registered 31 degrees) and we kept it there for a couple of days. In the first 24-48 hours you dont need to worry about it eating chick crumbs...just scoop it's beak through the water so it gets the idea. Once it was moving around a lot, we took it back and mum has accepted it back, along with the others. Now it's huge and we cant tell which one it was! Good luck with your chick.
 
thanks everyone - the little chick has really perked up and cheeping away. I did take the other live chick from the other hen and put it in with poorly chick and they seem much happier. They are both in an indoor rabbit cage with water and crumb. The other chick although slightly younger is bigger and started pecking at the crumbs straight away (and thanks for the tip about the pen - it was following it about!!! The poorly chick however is yet to eat but am hoping that it will follow its buddy's example now. I did rush out and buy a proper heat lamp so I have done everything I can and its up to nature now.

I really am in two minds as to whether I should get the other hen (the one that had the well little chick that I stole...) to accept both of them back tomorrow morning - what do you think?

To add to the problem we go on holiday in a week for 10 days ... arghhhhhh
 
i think getting the hen to accept both chicks is worth a try, especially if you are going away in a few days... means that who ever is looking after the livestock while you're away won't have to be hand rearing a chick, just checking on them! If it doesn't work you haven't lost anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top