Little chick doesn't know how to feed

[Tine]

Hello, I have a late hatcher that I safely hatched 2 days ago.
One hen hatched all 6 of her chicks and seeing as how they were all fluffy dried and running, wanted to leave and eat. One egg that just started to crack got left behind. Our usual method would be to place it in another brooding hen so it'll be warm enough to hatch (we don't have incubators). But because the other hen recognized the peep as not her own, she didn't respond to the chick's calls and the latter didn't move to the point of staying in that one little crack for hours.

We have free range chickens (not a big yard but everyone in the neighborhood owns chickens), and most of the time I just let hens be with their chicks.

But for this special occasion, I decided to help the little one survive. I took her in and slowly helped her hatch. Warmed her using my own heating pad and fuzzy soft sweaters (had no idea that chicks shed baby flood). As I've witnessed everytime, the more chicks hens have only few will make it to adulthood. So I was reluctant to return her anyway (I did try but the mother was too busy with her other chicks to pay attention to the new one, even if she didn't reject, ending up with the chick not having room under mom when it rained).

She's active as any other chick, does the distress call whenever I leave the room, eats and drinks. Except the problem she doesn't know how and I tried to teach her to no avail. I tried giving her solids (I couldn't buy chick starter yet but I did crush some corn/feed), she's a native breed that can eat anything and not so delicate with food. She'll drink if I dip her head in water, but she won't peck (or she will but she won't swallow). She got the hang of it but won't eat much.


Or maybe it's because the first thing she ever ate was the soft boiled egg yolk I made/shared with her and now she's used to soft foods (she'll peck the cooked rice I'd tear to bits for her but won't even try it when I present her with corn/feed. Just peck-and-spit. I want her to eat solid foods, she's not showing signs of weakness from hunger, but how can I get her to eat?
Just today I brought her to her real mom, in hopes that she'll learn to eat like her siblings (and she did...sort of. When I came back to check on her, mom left a while ago and she didn't follow, just hiding in the corner, so I took her back with me).

TL/DR: Trying to raise and teach a 2 day old chick to eat solid foods because she seems to have gotten used to soft??

 

[azygous]

You're doing a pretty good job of being a mama chicken. I have a feeling you'll be successful with this, and the chick will be fine.

At two days old, they aren't ravenously hungry yet. They are curious about anything on the floor, though. Continue to sprinkle food on the floor, and peck at it as you drop it. Drop a bit of food, peck. Drop, peck. This is what the mama does. How good are you at imitating tidbitting noises?

Letting the chick spend time with the other chicks is genius. Even a very limited exposure to the others will pay off when this chick is ready to join them full time.

 

[Tine]

You're doing a pretty good job of being a mama chicken. I have a feeling you'll be successful with this, and the chick will be fine.

At two days old, they aren't ravenously hungry yet. They are curious about anything on the floor, though. Continue to sprinkle food on the floor, and peck at it as you drop it. Drop a bit of food, peck. Drop, peck. This is what the mama does. How good are you at imitating tidbitting noises?

Letting the chick spend time with the other chicks is genius. Even a very limited exposure to the others will pay off when this chick is ready to join them full time.

Thank you. That's reassuring to hear, err read hehe. She won't be lonely as there are plenty of other chicks outside and I can always bring her out (just maybe not this week because of the recent low pressures and rains, which made me all the more sure to take her in in the first place because she'll end up getting left behind in the cold and die). The other chicks will have to share heat under their mother, and while I can't replicate the exact heat and warmth and sibling chirps, I did make a sort of space for her.
Hopefully this makeshift "incubator" will be enough for the next few weeks. I secured the heating pad with a stick so it won't fall and the distance is enough to cover that side with warmth. She gets out whenever she wants.

 

[Tine]

Thank you. That's reassuring to hear, err read hehe. She won't be lonely as there are plenty of other chicks outside and I can always bring her out (just maybe not this week because of the recent low pressures and rains, which made me all the more sure to take her in in the first place because she'll end up getting left behind in the cold and die). The other chicks will have to share heat under their mother, and while I can't replicate the exact heat and warmth and sibling chirps, I did make a sort of space for her.
Hopefully this makeshift "incubator" will be enough for the next few weeks. I secured the heating pad with a stick so it won't fall and the distance is enough to cover that side with warmth. She gets out whenever she wants.

I can tell she likes it. Until yesterday we haven't been able to leave the room (I didn't wanna take her outside and she doesn't want me to leave her), so I made that box. Prior to that it's just the heating pad under the sweater and some extra layers to keep the extra heat off.
I put hot water in the pad, placed her in and a couple minutes later silence. I checked and she was fast asleep. Only when the water cooled down she woke up and was active again. Demanding to be out of that box. I entertained her for a moment but there's stuff to do around the house. So I replaced the hot water and now she's asleep again. Now I can do laundry.

 

[FunClucks]

How is your chick doing?