2 of my chicks have died- is this normal

[CHIC]

I got my order of chicks Wednesday and two have died since. I don't think I am doing anything wrong. They are well fed, watered, warm and clean. Is this normal?

 

[PortageGirl]

It's not abnormal. I've had batches of chicks with NO losses, and some with a few... as long as the rest are strong, have bright clear eyes and are peeping around looking strong, it sounds fine.

Sometimes there's just a few that are weak or get stressed. Also, if they get chilly, or just pile up on each other they can smother the ones on the bottom... how many did you get? If you have a lot, it's often better to have no corners where they can squash each other into. (were they found in the corner? under the lamp? near the water?)

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Oh know!! I got the Rainbow Special two days ago as well.

Could they have had pasty butt? Four of mine did up until yesterday morning. I didn't see any this morning.

Are you sure the two were eating? I must say, with 26 little fuzzy butts running around - some are sleeping, some are eating, some are drinking, all at the same time.

Did the two act differently prior to finding them dead?

I hope all the others remain healthy.

 

[Lensters]

From my experience, chicks are a lot hardier than they are usually given credit for. However, they are also as stupid as the day is long and try their best to find a way to kill themselves. As long as it doesn't have a poopy butt and had an appropriate heating, water and food then there probably wasn't anything you could do.

 

[speckledhen]

Failure to thrive usually starts at about 4 days old, when their yolk reserves run out and they must eat and drink or die. On occasion, one just refuses to eat or drink, no matter how often you take it to water or food and there is little you can do about that--the chick must do those things on its own eventually.
With shipped chicks, they are sometimes bumped around too much and injured in transit then die after you get them.

 

[Akane]

With shipped chicks it's not uncommon and usually nothing you did wrong. Shipping is stressful on chicks and one reason I avoid it by taking my risk with eggs. I'd rather have a bunch more eggs not hatch due to shipping damage than lose a batch of chicks to shipping stress. If it's only a couple I wouldn't worry. If lots of them start dying then you need to look at your setup to see if something is wrong and call the hatchery because you may have gotten a sick batch of chicks or something like that. It occasionally happens. Now if you hatch your own and even 1 dies I'd be taking a serious look at your brooder and the care they are getting because that should be extremely rare.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

CHIC

How are the rest of your chicks doing?

I was thinking about your little ones over the weekend and wondering if you were adding any supplements to the water still.

I'm not a big fan of supplements myself. With my first two sets of chicks that came from the feed store, the chicks were given electrolytes in the water at day one, so I didn't use any once I got them home.

With my new little ones from MPC I got last Wed, I added pedialyte the first day only.

 

[chixie]

~*Sweet Cheeks*~ :

CHIC

How are the rest of your chicks doing?

I was thinking about your little ones over the weekend and wondering if you were adding any supplements to the water still.

I'm not a big fan of supplements myself. With my first two sets of chicks that came from the feed store, the chicks were given electrolytes in the water at day one, so I didn't use any once I got them home.

With my new little ones from MPC I got last Wed, I added pedialyte the first day only.

how much pedialyte did you use?​

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

I used 1/4 cup in 1 gal of water.

 

[chixie]

thanks