- Thread starter
- #11
yokel
Chirping
Found a large cage in the local small ads for very little money. I think it was once a parrot cage, it's about a metre wide by half a metre deep by a metre and a half tall.
Set it up inside in the house, with an electric blanket designed for pets covering half the bottom, and a 250W infra red heat lamp hanging from the top.
The heated mat produces only very gentle warmth and the IR lamp is high enough to again, keep the heat only very gentle.
Made an enclosed shelter out of a shoebox with a tom & jerry style hole for a door, sat on the heat pad.
Provided only chick crumb as food, and a low dish of water. Few branches for climbing / perches.
Brought the remaining chick in, it seemed happy and lively for a good few days but then, just like the other 2, it suddenly dropped dead with very little warning. I guess from my first inkling that it wasn't totally well, to finding it dead, was no more than maybe 4 hours. Delayed effect of layer pellets? (when I lost the sheep, it was very delayed) or, maybe separation anxiety from mum?
So my first attempt at raising chicks has been very sad.
I think I've learnt a great deal regards what to do and what not to do though, if there's anything positive.
Part way through, I began to worry about maintaining genetic diversity in the flock and realised I couldn't just keep breeding endlessly from the same small pool of birds. So whilst I like allowing broody to hatch the eggs, I think in future I'll look into providing her with maybe purebreed fertilised eggs sourced from outside (tips welcome) and then bring them on inside in the chick cage in the house, shortly after hatching, before they've had too much chance to bond with mum.
Set it up inside in the house, with an electric blanket designed for pets covering half the bottom, and a 250W infra red heat lamp hanging from the top.
The heated mat produces only very gentle warmth and the IR lamp is high enough to again, keep the heat only very gentle.
Made an enclosed shelter out of a shoebox with a tom & jerry style hole for a door, sat on the heat pad.
Provided only chick crumb as food, and a low dish of water. Few branches for climbing / perches.
Brought the remaining chick in, it seemed happy and lively for a good few days but then, just like the other 2, it suddenly dropped dead with very little warning. I guess from my first inkling that it wasn't totally well, to finding it dead, was no more than maybe 4 hours. Delayed effect of layer pellets? (when I lost the sheep, it was very delayed) or, maybe separation anxiety from mum?
So my first attempt at raising chicks has been very sad.
I think I've learnt a great deal regards what to do and what not to do though, if there's anything positive.
Part way through, I began to worry about maintaining genetic diversity in the flock and realised I couldn't just keep breeding endlessly from the same small pool of birds. So whilst I like allowing broody to hatch the eggs, I think in future I'll look into providing her with maybe purebreed fertilised eggs sourced from outside (tips welcome) and then bring them on inside in the chick cage in the house, shortly after hatching, before they've had too much chance to bond with mum.