What can I do with a chick that imprinted on me?

[Burnttoast5475]

I had a poor hatch with only 2 chicks making it out of 12 eggs and I have been caring for them. But one of the chicks cry whenever I leave the room or If he doesn't see me. I know it's because of me since he makes this happy chirp once he's able to see me or hear my voice. Does anyone know what to do? He's driving me a bit crazy..

 

[Burnttoast5475]

today the second chick died and left the clingy one alone but within an hour I bought two ameraucana chicks that look no more than a week old.

 

[nuthatched]

Ignore it and let it bond with the new babies

 

[Burnttoast5475]

Ignore it and let it bond with the new babies

okay, thank you. I thought maybe it was just gonna cry forever I was worried for a sec. lol

 

[RuralAmy]

I seem to have this issue with about 4 out of 6 of my new chicks (4 weeks old). I set up a protective play area I can sit in with them so they can eat worms and perch on me. We just have a little chick party. But I noticed when I put them back in their brooder for the night they cry for about 5 minutes the all huddle under the brooder plate. When I put my both my arms out in front of me they all jump back and forth from arm to arm. They are a very energetic little crew.

 

[Burnttoast5475]

I seem to have this issue with about 4 out of 6 of my new chicks (4 weeks old). I set up a protective play area I can sit in with them so they can eat worms and perch on me. We just have a little chick party. But I noticed when I put them back in their brooder for the night they cry for about 5 minutes the all huddle under the brooder plate. When I put my both my arms out in front of me they all jump back and forth from arm to arm. They are a very energetic little crew.

I wonder why that happens. Maybe because I took them out the incubator too early? There was a chick that had its intestines out and I just wanted to end its suffering so I did that and took the other two out. It was a bad hatch for sure.

 

[RuralAmy]

I wonder why that happens. Maybe because I took them out the incubator too early? There was a chick that had its intestines out and I just wanted to end its suffering so I did that and took the other two out. It was a bad hatch for sure.

Oh wow. That’s got to be so hard to do. I’m so sorry.
For some reason this crew of chicks is just a wild and friendly bunch. My last years chicks though we were the bringers of death anytime we changed out food or water or cleaned their brooder. Hated to be held and would never perch for fun on anyone.

 

[DonyaQuick]

If there is an area of the brooder that the imprinted chick goes to every time when it's lonely after you leave the room, try to make that the warm area, since they will readily leave a warm area to try to follow "mom" and then stay stuck at the side panicking. Or if using a heat plate, put a night light or something to illuminate where it needs to go while the room is dark to attract it over to the heat source. Those tricks can really help with night time crying in imprinted chicks. I have four VERY imprinted chicks right now with a heat plate and I use the night light trick to get them to go to bed (and I'm not trying to decrease their attachment to me, so the light trick works independently of that).

And assuming it has friends now, ignoring it is indeed the only way to reduce the human attachment factor if you need to do that. What a chick is attached to is more maleable than the oldschool view that it will always be what the chick sees first. Just be cautious when ignoring, because the distress cry they do when lonely is also what they'll do if they're too hot/cold/etc.

 

[NewcoopNewpoop]

Someone added a teddy bear for their clingy chick and it worked for them.

 

[Burnttoast5475]

Oh wow. That’s got to be so hard to do. I’m so sorry.
For some reason this crew of chicks is just a wild and friendly bunch. My last years chicks though we were the bringers of death anytime we changed out food or water or cleaned their brooder. Hated to be held and would never perch for fun on anyone.

Maybe chicks just have different personalities lol. I do like to baby my chicks so they’re friendly but maybe I just babied this batch a little too much because of what happened. I’m hoping when my next chicks hatch they prefer eachother a little more than me lol