Baby bantam won’t eat on it’s own

[Ashmarie621]

Advice? I got a batch of bantams from the hatchery (second batch actually- the first batch had a crazy mortality rate - only 17 out of 40 made it) and they’re about a week old today. One of the little babies will not eat on it’s own. I have been giving her water with electrolytes from a dropper, giving her a bit of nutridrench now and then, and trying to encourage her to eat but she just won’t. She’s hanging on but gets nearly smushed by her friends during the night and is pretty tiny. I’ve been putting little globs of starter mush down her beak so I can feel a bit of weight in her crop, but I can’t feed her like this forever. Tried egg yolk also. She’ll watch the others eat, but then hop back to the heat plate. Any insight? Do some babies just never “catch on” to eating like this?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She may be failing to thrive.
If she's getting smushed by the others during the night, then put her in her own brooder maybe with a couple of other chicks.

How big is your brooder and how many chicks are in it?

 

[Ashmarie621]

She may be failing to thrive.
If she's getting smushed by the others during the night, then put her in her own brooder maybe with a couple of other chicks.

How big is your brooder and how many chicks are in it?

It’s a large deep bin, with one third dedicated to the heat plate and the other area for play and food and water. There’s about 20 tiny bantams in there right now, and I have another larger brooder I can move some of them to when they get just a little bigger. I really only have them in this one because the last batch did so poorly (two were DOA) and I wanted to watch them closely for the first week. She just isn’t getting the hang of it. There’s room under the heat plate for all of them.

 

[Ashmarie621]

It’s a large deep bin, with one third dedicated to the heat plate and the other area for play and food and water. There’s about 20 tiny bantams in there right now, and I have another larger brooder I can move some of them to when they get just a little bigger. I really only have them in this one because the last batch did so poorly (two were DOA) and I wanted to watch them closely for the first week. She just isn’t getting the hang of it. There’s room under the heat plate for all of them.

Oh! And also, during the day I give her her own little space with a heat pad so she can rest without getting trampled. I hold her sometimes also, because she needs to be hand watered and I figure the TLC can’t hurt .

 

[Ashmarie621]

Oh! And also, during the day I give her her own little space with a heat pad so she can rest without getting trampled. I hold her sometimes also, because she needs to be hand watered and I figure the TLC can’t hurt .

Poor little thing finally passed. I think I was trying to get her to hold on when maybe she wasn’t meant to .