3 & 4 week old baby chicks don't wanna eat anything else than raw rice , what should i do?

[Dean126]

If they do make it there quality of life will be poor. I don't think you should be raising chickens in an apartment.

 

[Crazyabouthens]

You can't keep the chickens in the apartment for the rest of their life. How are they going to fre range? How will they lay their eggs? How will they explore and forage like how chickens should live?? What exactly is your plan? do you have a garden? Do they have a proper coop for when they get bigger?....

 

[NatJ]

i tried feeding them egg yolk and they seem too scared of it and starts chriping loudy when they see it.

How long did you leave the egg yolk there?
Sometimes chicks need several hours to get used to something new, and decide that it won't eat them so maybe they can eat it.

Or maybe you could put it in their cage first thing in the morning, before it gets light, so it's just there when they wake up.

Do you know what temperature it is in their cage? Chicks sometimes refuse to eat if they are too hot or too cold.

 

[mahampire]

You can't keep the chickens in the apartment for the rest of their life. How are they going to fre range? How will they lay their eggs? How will they explore and forage like how chickens should live?? What exactly is your plan? do you have a garden? Do they have a proper coop for when they get bigger?....

they are both roosters so they won't make a family anyways , and we have free ground infront of our house so i can take them out. but eventually they'll be house roosters, i had them before they did seemed like they didn't have any problem staying home.

 

[mahampire]

Well if you keep giving them rice they will die anyways so stop doing that. Just give them chick starter and if they starve they starve.

thanks a lot i'll do this and help them as much as possible so they can make it

 

[mahampire]

How long did you leave the egg yolk there?
Sometimes chicks need several hours to get used to something new, and decide that it won't eat them so maybe they can eat it.

Or maybe you could put it in their cage first thing in the morning, before it gets light, so it's just there when they wake up.

Do you know what temperature it is in their cage? Chicks sometimes refuse to eat if they are too hot or too cold.

the temparature is fine they chirp if they are hot or cold, maybe i didn't leave the food long enough for them to decide if they should eat or not. i'll leave the egg yolk in there in the morning trm i hope they eat this time. thanks
.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I applaud you for not getting offended and sincerely considering the advice you're getting here which is all good. Welcome to BYC by the way! You're really in the best place for help! Due to the fact that the chicks are nutritionally suffering you really do need to take it seriously and break into crisis mode. Give them Chick Starter with some water mixed in. You can leave it in there for several days before it starts to mold so unless you're giving a new fresh bowl (you should probably do that daily,) don't take it away. Leave it. And give them Nutridrench in their water (at feed stores and amazon.) They need a vitamin boost big time. Addressing the future state of how you're going to manage them can come next after you've ensured they are going to live. Just stop the rice and give only Chick Starter. You can do the egg yolk too but getting creative to see what they do and don't like is not a great idea. I sincerely wish you luck and hope you'll keep posting about progress.

 

[Crazyabouthens]

they are both roosters so they won't make a family anyways ,

Just wondering, at 3 and 4 weeks old... how are you able to tell if they are roosters? Isn't is usually by 12 weeks you can tell?...

 

[NatJ]

Just wondering, at 3 and 4 weeks old... how are you able to tell if they are roosters? Isn't is usually by 12 weeks you can tell?...

I don't know about the specific chicks OP has, but there are two common ways to know for chicks that young:

Some males become very obvious at a very young age.

Or someone can buy sexed cockerel chicks, which is about as accurate as buying sexed pullet chicks.

 

[bobbi-j]

they are both roosters so they won't make a family anyways , and we have free ground infront of our house so i can take them out. but eventually they'll be house roosters, i had them before they did seemed like they didn't have any problem staying home.

How do you plan on keeping the crowing from bothering everyone else in the building?

the temparature is fine they chirp if they are hot or cold, maybe i didn't leave the food long enough for them to decide if they should eat or not. i'll leave the egg yolk in there in the morning trm i hope they eat this time. thanks

I would suggest not giving them egg yolk. I would remove everything but the chicken feed for them to eat. As previously stated, they likely won’t starve themselves. Make sure they have plenty of water.

i had many chicks before they grew up pretty big well and strong but these two seems very weak :"[ i mean the other ones did really just fine even they used to eat everything . i kept them the same way :"[ i had 12 pet chicks before :"[ thought they would also make it , i understand. but anything i can do for now?

You kept 12 chickens in an apartment?? How does that work? How long did you keep them? How old did they live to be? Wasn’t there a lot of dust and dander? How did you keep that down? I’m just curious because I can’t even stand to have half a dozen new chicks in my house for more than a few days because of the mess and smell they create.