One baby dead and I'm worried the next small baby might also....any help appreciated

[Marybeth912]

Monday I picked up three Cream Legbars from a local breeder. They were all hatched on Sunday and only a day old. They were all very close in size but one noticeably bigger and with that had the bigger personality. Tuesday I received a devastating shipment from MPC. The two surviving (Blue Favacauna and Golden Cuckoo Marans) were hatched Monday. I put all of them in the same brooder and everything has seemed fine for the most part. There are a couple of times over the past week where I've found myself thinking those two smaller Cream Legbars are growing as fast but as I saw them eating and drinking I just wrote it off as me being paranoid and traumatized from receiving that terrible shipment on Tuesday.

My brooder is a Tupperware box with an infrared heat lamp. I have a thermometer and then box has stayed between 100 and 95, but is big enough for the chicks to move out of the heat if they get too hot. I have pine shavings, a chick watered, and medicated chick starter crumbs. I change the bedding probably more than I need to because I'm trying to keep it super clean for them so they don't get sick.

This morning I noticed the two smaller chicks weren't eating and drinking with the bigger 3...again I was starting to worry....noticing again that they just weren't growing like the others. All of the poops seem fine....but they are seeming a little lethargic I thought...one was making a sort of muffled peeping sound and I wasn't sure what that was about and after a second it seemed to clear up.

I left for the better portion of the day today and returns to one of the smaller Cream Legbars I've been so worried about dead. Now I'm terrified that the other is soon to follow. I've switched the water in the brooder to sugar water but she still isn't eating a lot. She kind of stumbles and I don't know if it's her being little, or weak, or sick. She's not as assertive as the others and will offen stay out of the hustle and bustle/chaos the other three create.

I've attached a photo.

What do I do? Please help

-Very Concerned, Sad, New Chick Mom

 

[TattooedChicks]

Some babies just develop faster or slower than others, especially between different breeders and sources. Some are also stronger, others just won't make it long and it's not your fault. I have a brood now of different 6 week old bantams that all seem to be going their own pace and direction; a black Cochin who is half the size of her gold lace cockerel brood-mate, a buff Orpington that is bulking up but has a body that's still half baby fluff, a D'Uccle who couldn't care if I existed and a sultan who looks like a love struck puppy when I come to visit.

So long as they appear to be eating, drinking, pooping and not injuring each other, they will get there in good time.

My only thoughts are your brooder being too small, that the overall ambient temp is too high without enough cool, room temp spots, or the faster growing chicks are in some way keeping the smaller chicks from the food/ hassling them and making them tired because they can't get away. When I was using a heat lamp at night, I noticed my chicks were much harder on each other. But when I switched to a heating pad on later broods, they seemed to mellow by having a natural rhythm of light and dark.

Good luck with your babies and sorry for your lose. Keep us posted if you are noticing any more signs of a baby gone poorly so we can help.

 

[TattooedChicks]

One thing you might try to get her to eat if you are worried is making a small plate of wet chick starter. They tend to gobble it up quick even though it's the same food they've been pecking at all day.

 

[Marybeth912]

Some babies just develop faster or slower than others, especially between different breeders and sources. Some are also stronger, others just won't make it long and it's not your fault. I have a brood now of different 6 week old bantams that all seem to be going their own pace and direction; a black Cochin who is half the size of her gold lace cockerel brood-mate, a buff Orpington that is bulking up but has a body that's still half baby fluff, a D'Uccle who couldn't care if I existed and a sultan who looks like a love struck puppy when I come to visit.

So long as they appear to be eating, drinking, pooping and not injuring each other, they will get there in good time.

My only thoughts are your brooder being too small, that the overall ambient temp is too high without enough cool, room temp spots, or the faster growing chicks are in some way keeping the smaller chicks from the food/ hassling them and making them tired because they can't get away. When I was using a heat lamp at night, I noticed my chicks were much harder on each other. But when I switched to a heating pad on later broods, they seemed to mellow by having a natural rhythm of light and dark.

Good luck with your babies and sorry for your lose. Keep us posted if you are noticing any more signs of a baby gone poorly so we can help.

Thank you I've been sitting with them and I just watched her push her way in for some food and water. I am worried that she might not like how rambunctious the other three are while eating. I have a bigger brooder for them but since the side of the bigger box is so tall I can't get quite it warm enough I should be able to move them soon though. But I've been testing the temperature away from the lamp and I think it's fine. It is curious that I found the dead one in the far corner. Not sure if that's coincidence or what

I keep rooting on her (fingers crossed)

 

[TattooedChicks]

Honestly, the best bunch I had for an indoor brood was done on a cold basement floor with a small heat lamp on in one corner of a big 4 x 10 brooder and a heating pad on at night, ambient air temp was in the 70s at the far end and I've never had chicks come off the heat as fast and well as these did when they were moved to the coop at two weeks and off the heat pad by three. So long as they have a place to warm up, they will regulate the rest.

Good to hear she's still trying, that's half the battle right there.

 

[Marybeth912]

Honestly, the best bunch I had for an indoor brood was done on a cold basement floor with a small heat lamp on in one corner of a big 4 x 10 brooder and a heating pad on at night, ambient air temp was in the 70s at the far end and I've never had chicks come off the heat as fast and well as these did when they were moved to the coop at two weeks and off the heat pad by three. So long as they have a place to warm up, they will regulate the rest.

Good to hear she's still trying, that's half the battle right there.

I think she might be getting worse. I've now switched their water from sugar water to Nutri-drench and she has her own brooder but I'd be surprised if she made it through the night

 

[TattooedChicks]

I've had some that tried to quit on me and I was able to feed them egg yolk thinned with a little water through a dropper several times a day until they turned around. After a few days of yolk I added crushed starter to make a thin gruel until they showed vigor and self-sufficiency.

 

[Marybeth912]

I've had some that tried to quit on me and I was able to feed them egg yolk thinned with a little water through a dropper several times a day until they turned around. After a few days of yolk I added crushed starter to make a thin gruel until they showed vigor and self-sufficiency.

I'm currently trying scrambled egg and if she won't take this then I'll definitely try that!

 

[azygous]

Your temperature gradient should be 20 to 30 degrees from the warmest spot. Brooders kept at uniformly high temperature kills more chicks than anything else. Plastic boxes used as brooders tend to hold heat even more, creating an oven effect.

It's crucially important for there to be enough space that chicks can move to a cool space to shed excess heat. If the brooder is too small or has too many chicks that interfere with chicks being able to freely move in and out of the warm and cool zones, some may become trapped for too long in the warm zone. The fact that you found the dead chick at the far end away from the heated zone indicates it was desperate to shed heat but was probably too late in finally succeeding in getting there.

Here are some signs that your chicks are not able to cool down as they need to:

-Chicks standing around with beaks agape and wings held out from their sides.
-Chicks hugging the far reaches of the cooler space, not freely moving regularly back and forth between the two.
-Watery stools from drinking too much water trying to cool down.
-Recurring pasty butt.

 

[Marybeth912]

Your temperature gradient should be 20 to 30 degrees from the warmest spot. Brooders kept at uniformly high temperature kills more chicks than anything else. Plastic boxes used as brooders tend to hold heat even more, creating an oven effect.

It's crucially important for there to be enough space that chicks can move to a cool space to shed excess heat. If the brooder is too small or has too many chicks that interfere with chicks being able to freely move in and out of the warm and cool zones, some may become trapped for too long in the warm zone. The fact that you found the dead chick at the far end away from the heated zone indicates it was desperate to shed heat but was probably too late in finally succeeding in getting there.

Here are some signs that your chicks are not able to cool down as they need to:

-Chicks standing around with beaks agape and wings held out from their sides.
-Chicks hugging the far reaches of the cooler space, not freely moving regularly back and forth between the two.
-Watery stools from drinking too much water trying to cool down.
-Recurring pasty butt.

Thank you. I haven't noticed any of those signs. I have since moved them into the bigger brooder through just in case. The other three that aren't lethargic have been moving around, exploring, eating, drinking, sleeping, pooping well. I'm at a loss. They've all been sleeping close to the lamp but not directly under it (they've been finding their comfort spots) with plenty of room to move farther away if they wish.