12th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-Along

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They're cute! Yep, bigger, and ya know, it's warm weather now..you really could hatch again.
Cute! Yep, bigger. And yes, you should hatch again. :pop

Haha, no need to worry on that, I already have at least two more hatches planned, and some chicks ordered for the summer. Though most of those are bantams again, now that I'm thinking about it!

...I may have a tiny bit of a bantam addiction... no pun intended. :gig
 
Guys, I have a blind chick! She drinks water when I put her beak in, but won’t peck, even when I gently push her head into the chick crumble. She’s two days old so it’s not quite urgent until tomorrow for her to eat but... I don’t want her to die! She won’t open her other eye so I’m not sure if that one has a cataract too. Can I save her? How would you encourage her to eat?
 

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@sayga

I'm really sorry about your little baby! :(

I haven't dealt with anything like what she has but I had a chick once that for whatever reason just could not get the concept of eating or drinking on his own. Nothing obvious physically wrong with him and he had plenty of energy but he wouldn't eat or drink (I knew something was wrong when by day 5 he would just peep and peep and peep). I ended up mixing some kaytee baby bird formula up and molding it into little rice-sized pieces. I'd open my little chicks beak and push it in, give him some time to swallow then repeat with the next piece and so on. It was very time consuming at first as half of the time he'd manage to spit it out. I kept at it though feeding him multiple times a day and carefully giving him some water by slowly dripping it onto his beak via syringe. By the second week he got easier to feed as once it was in his mouth he wanted to swallow it. By the third week he actually would sometimes peck it out of my fingers if I held it at eye level and he'd peck at the water coming out of the syringe tip. The 4th week he finally got the concept of pecking the food off my hand held at ground level and he was able to drink on his own. By 5 weeks he didn't need to be hand fed or watered anymore. It wasn't ideal, he was definitely stunted for awhile from the ordeal but he caught up to the other chicks in a couple months once he started eating without help. He's now around 9 months old and doing great.

I'm not sure if that helps but hand feeding is possible as a last resort if you have the time to do it (I was lucky that I wasn't working so was able to devote that time to my little problem chick).

I hope your baby will manage to figure out how to eat for you, good luck! :fl
 
Guys, I have a blind chick! She drinks water when I put her beak in, but won’t peck, even when I gently push her head into the chick crumble. She’s two days old so it’s not quite urgent until tomorrow for her to eat but... I don’t want her to die! She won’t open her other eye so I’m not sure if that one has a cataract too. Can I save her? How would you encourage her to eat?
Wish I could help - I have a blind hen - but if I remember correctly, the previous owner told me she went blind around the three-month mark, so she already had the concept of eating. All I have to do is tap the food dish and she knows I put something in it and will run to it. She also figures out where food is when she hears others eating and pecking. She also isn't 100% blind, so she can sort of see red. So I made sure her water dish is red and no problems. But to have a chick blind so early... I hope someone can help! Poor little thing! <3
 
@sayga

I'm really sorry about your little baby! :(

I haven't dealt with anything like what she has but I had a chick once that for whatever reason just could not get the concept of eating or drinking on his own. Nothing obvious physically wrong with him and he had plenty of energy but he wouldn't eat or drink (I knew something was wrong when by day 5 he would just peep and peep and peep). I ended up mixing some kaytee baby bird formula up and molding it into little rice-sized pieces. I'd open my little chicks beak and push it in, give him some time to swallow then repeat with the next piece and so on. It was very time consuming at first as half of the time he'd manage to spit it out. I kept at it though feeding him multiple times a day and carefully giving him some water by slowly dripping it onto his beak via syringe. By the second week he got easier to feed as once it was in his mouth he wanted to swallow it. By the third week he actually would sometimes peck it out of my fingers if I held it at eye level and he'd peck at the water coming out of the syringe tip. The 4th week he finally got the concept of pecking the food off my hand held at ground level and he was able to drink on his own. By 5 weeks he didn't need to be hand fed or watered anymore. It wasn't ideal, he was definitely stunted for awhile from the ordeal but he caught up to the other chicks in a couple months once he started eating without help. He's now around 9 months old and doing great.

I'm not sure if that helps but hand feeding is possible as a last resort if you have the time to do it (I was lucky that I wasn't working so was able to devote that time to my little problem chick).

I hope your baby will manage to figure out how to eat for you, good luck! :fl
I'm so glad you could save him! <3
 
A little bit early lockdown over here because some of the development is looking pretty far along. I still can't believe all 22 eggs are viable and made it to lockdown! :ya

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Any nail polish will work, that's just the name of the color. Lol, Gunmetal Glitter. ;) When I repair eggs with nail polish they get named after the polish color. Lol :lau

I love it. 🤣 If my cracked egg lives (just put it in a few days ago, one of my hens started laying again after a 2 month break), I guess the name would be... base coat / top coat. 😆 🤷‍♀️ Gunmetal Glitter definitely has more of a ring to it. 😅 Curious, what other names have you used?
Top coat / base coat lived! After giving me a heart attack, she finally got out.

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When mine hatched, I wondered about yours. I couldn't find a post about it, but did Gunmetal Glitter hatch? 🤩
 
Haha, no need to worry on that, I already have at least two more hatches planned, and some chicks ordered for the summer. Though most of those are bantams again, now that I'm thinking about it!

...I may have a tiny bit of a bantam addiction... no pun intended. :gig
Don’t we all... I sware there should be something for it like AA... lol CA chickens anonymous ..... :lau
 
Top coat / base coat lived! After giving me a heart attack, she finally got out.

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When mine hatched, I wondered about yours. I couldn't find a post about it, but did Gunmetal Glitter hatch? 🤩

Welcome to the world little top coat/base coat!! Lol

Yes! Gunmetal Glitter is doing fantastic! That hatch was 100% hatch rate actually! My friend has her now.
 
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