4 week old Guinea keets dying

[n2nursing]

Heys guys. Im a fairly newbie with guinea keets. I have 10 guina keets about 4 weeks old. 2 have died in the last 3 days and have no earthly clue why. They look perfect otherwise. I did notice yesterday the 1 was acting sleepy sluggish. I have sand in the coop, since they have about 3/4 of feathers I still have heat lamp on at night, been hot during the days. Been feeding a chick medicated starter, and maybe thats the only thing I can think of would be the problem, I thought to switch to turkey gamebird feed. Im perplexed. Could they be pecking at the wooden coop which is pine, Ive read pine is toxic. I have no earthly idea why this has happened. Breaks my heart. Any ideas...

 

[Jedwards]

Not 100% sure as to why they are dying but IMO you should switch to game bird stater feed because it has more protein in it. When I had keets I fed them the game bird starter feed from when I got them around a week old until they free ranged. They need a higher level of protein than chickens in order to grow and be healthy

 

[Jedwards]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/923290/can-guineas-eat-medicated-chicken-food

 

[Kim Z]

I agree with jedwards. They need the higher protein levels.

 

[GlennLee]

Will they eat meal worms? I added some meal worms early on for bell training with my keets, that would be a good protein boost for them - also boiled eggs chopped up. Good luck... sad to hear you are losing your keets and I hope you get this figured out. One more thought.... Are they drinking? Dehydration may be a possibility. Electrolytes added to the water can help give them a boost. And another thought - What's their poop look like? Too runny at this point may mean they are sick.

 

[Anita Scott]

Heys guys. Im a fairly newbie with guinea keets. I have 10 guina keets about 4 weeks old. 2 have died in the last 3 days and have no earthly clue why. They look perfect otherwise. I did notice yesterday the 1 was acting sleepy sluggish. I have sand in the coop, since they have about 3/4 of feathers I still have heat lamp on at night, been hot during the days. Been feeding a chick medicated starter, and maybe thats the only thing I can think of would be the problem, I thought to switch to turkey gamebird feed. Im perplexed. Could they be pecking at the wooden coop which is pine, Ive read pine is toxic. I have no earthly idea why this has happened. Breaks my heart. Any ideas...

Did you ever find out what was going on? I have 4-6 week old keets dying. I feed game bird 24% feed. I keep finding dead babies. Caught some just sleeping in the field and separated them and later they died. So far have lost about a dozen. I started out with around 100 guinneas of various ages.

 

[casportpony]

Did you ever find out what was going on? I have 4-6 week old keets dying. I feed game bird 24% feed. I keep finding dead babies. Caught some just sleeping in the field and separated them and later they died. So far have lost about a dozen. I started out with around 100 guinneas of various ages.

It's been a long time since I raised keets, but when I did I fed them a 27% turkey starter. The one time I had a few get sick I treated them for coccidiosis with amprolium (Corid).

Catch the ones that look sick and get them in a brooder that's 80-85 degrees and post some pictures of their poop for us to look at.

 

[Stephjordan22]

I had a similar problem starting out with keets and determined it was from MEDICATED chick starter. I immediately changed them over to NON medicated feed and have had no problems.

 

[casportpony]

I had a similar problem starting out with keets and determined it was from MEDICATED chick starter. I immediately changed them over to NON medicated feed and have had no problems.

Welcome to BYC!

What was the medication in the feed?

 

[Stephjordan22]

Welcome to BYC!

What was the medication in the feed?

Not sure, it does not say on the bag or the website but the brand is Nutrena Country Feeds chick starter grower medicated