Baby Keets - resting?

[Sydney65]

Setting aside the question of whether or not zeolite is sufficient as grit: These baby guineas are only eating commercial feed - game bird starter - so won't need any insoluble grit until they're old enough to range.

Right- but you don't want them filling up on zeolite instead of feed. For the 1st week or two, just use paper towels, until they know what is and isn't food. I used to use zeolite in the coop with the bedding. Even with granules it was so dusty that I'd end up cleaning their nostrils with a qtip,and I'd be sneezing. I switched over to hemp bedding and don't need to add anything to dry droppings. But for now, papertowel is best. I use puppy pads in the brooder, too.

 

[vicknick]

Like I said, you believe what you want to believe but don't base your belief on a study that provides a false conclusion.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. If they have no wood chips they don't need insoluble grit. If they are eating commercial food, they don't need insoluble grit. They have nothing to eat other than the commercial feed. Nothing I'm saying is based on that study - or on the million sites that list zeolite as grit. I'm just saying these babies don't need grit period, so none of this back-and-forth matters. Have a great day, and thanks for taking the time to write out your concerns for my peepers.

 

[vicknick]

Ok, now you need to know what the temp on the floor inside the box is. If it's too warm, they'll be running in & out. Honest, I'm not trying to make things difficult. Lol set a small room thermometer inside. I have an RF thermometer I repurpose for this. If you have a handy man living with you who does his own repairs, he might have one.
Temp is important bc if it's off, the keets can develop pasty bum, where a white plug stops everything up & they can't poop. This can be gently removed with warm water or coconut oil. The important thing is to gently wash it away, not pull on it. Pulling can cause internal injury and death.
On the flip side, it can cause runny stools, or dehydration.
The toe thing-there's always one. It probably won't hurt anyone at the moment, but it is something you want to keep an eye on as it can lead to cannabilistic behavior. I once had to amputate a toe bc the offender wouldn't leave it alone. I'd put shoes on him, get it healed upm & she'd start again (by this point they were grown). Weird thing was once I removed that one toe, she never bothered the others.

Yikes. I put in a meat thermometer (lol) and it says it's 103 in there! The chicken heating pad JUST arrived in the mail so I'll pull out the heating pad I have in there & swap em out! Thanks for letting me know - haha, I know you're not making things difficult, keeping animals just MAKES things complicated naturally! LOL!!
Ah, mine grabs onto any toes he sees, so who knows. Maybe he'll grow out of it! Funny that yours had a thing for that one particular toe! LOL!!!

 

[Sydney65]

Yikes. I put in a meat thermometer (lol) and it says it's 103 in there! The chicken heating pad JUST arrived in the mail so I'll pull out the heating pad I have in there & swap em out! Thanks for letting me know - haha, I know you're not making things difficult, keeping animals just MAKES things complicated naturally! LOL!!
Ah, mine grabs onto any toes he sees, so who knows. Maybe he'll grow out of it! Funny that yours had a thing for that one particular toe! LOL!!!

If you do find that the chicken heating pad isn't warm enough, atleast 90°- then all you need to do is raise the heating pad-a different box or your box in a taller box, or putting the cooling rack on wood blocks.
I think what R2elk is saying is that the zeolite has no nutritional value, as food or grit, & yes, they'll put everything in their mouths. So if they fill up on zeolite instead of food, your babies will starve to death with full bellies.
Once grown, guinea fowl are darn near indestructible,except in cases of predators and vehicles. Guinea keets, however, are fragile & rely on you for everything.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Right- but you don't want them filling up on zeolite instead of feed. For the 1st week or two, just use paper towels, until they know what is and isn't food. I used to use zeolite in the coop with the bedding. Even with granules it was so dusty that I'd end up cleaning their nostrils with a qtip,and I'd be sneezing. I switched over to hemp bedding and don't need to add anything to dry droppings. But for now, papertowel is best. I use puppy pads in the brooder, too.

I use puppy pads too. Not that I think they are fanstastic either, but it’s the best I’ve used recently. I will put them in stacks of around 7, then remove the topmost one every day so there’s a clean one below. Some keets will still pick at them and I worry about the shroud threads from the pads stopping them up too. So I sprinkle some chick grit very finely on the top of the feed when I change their feeder. I recently acquired some charcoal puppy pads and am wondering if those are better or will just give me some other set of problems. Some people do use shavings, and my keets that hatch in the coop with a broody Guinea hen are on shavings and eat all sorts of crud.

 

[Sydney65]

Ooo.

I use puppy pads too. Not that I think they are fanstastic either, but it’s the best I’ve used recently. I will put them in stacks of around 7, then remove the topmost one every day so there’s a clean one below. Some keets will still pick at them and I worry about the shroud threads from the pads stopping them up too. So I sprinkle some chick grit very finely on the top of the feed when I change their feeder. I recently acquired some charcoal puppy pads and am wondering if those are better or will just give me some other set of problems. Some people do use shavings, and my keets that hatch in the coop with a broody Guinea hen are on shavings and eat all sorts of crud.

..ooh..let me know how the charcoal pads go. We used those in human baby diapers and they were great, but human babies cab't reach to chew on. The best pads I've found are at Meijer bc they don't have that gel in them.

 

[vicknick]

No one is acting funny anymore - but I've got such a range of ages! 3 newborns from overnight, and 7 from 4 days ago when the hen hatched them out, and a variety in between! Chicken-hatched babies all popped out of their shells at 25 days, and incubator babies came out between 27 and 29 days. I wonder why the chicken-hatched babies baked so much faster!! I'm keeping the newborns separate bc they are so much less coordinated - hard to believe 4 days can make so much difference, but there is a big difference. Hopefully the newborns will catch up quickly, lol - it'll be easier to have them all together!
Out of 14 fertilized eggs (I candled at 2 weeks and chucked all the ones with nothing but clear egg showing) all 14 hatched and are happy babies! 7 under my hen and 7 from my incubator.
Thanks to everyone for all your help - this was my first time, and so nervewracking!

 

[R2elk]

Chicken-hatched babies all popped out of their shells at 25 days, and incubator babies came out between 27 and 29 days.

I had two broody chickens that I would let hatch guinea eggs. One hen's eggs always all hatched on day 26. The other hen's eggs always hatched on day 28. I attributed the difference in hatching time to the second hen spending more time off the nest than the first hen did. Her daily breaks were always longer.

That may not be the whole determining factor since it is possible that each hen had a slightly different body temperature.

 

[vicknick]

That might be it - the hen hardly left the nest at all. I even gave her soaked crumbles on the nest as well as a good drink of water a few times a day to make sure she was getting enough because she just never left the nest! I joked with her about being spoiled with breakfast in bed, but she just glared at me. LOL. There's nothing like a broody chicken's glare, lol!

 

[R2elk]

That might be it - the hen hardly left the nest at all. I even gave her soaked crumbles on the nest as well as a good drink of water a few times a day to make sure she was getting enough because she just never left the nest! I joked with her about being spoiled with breakfast in bed, but she just glared at me. LOL. There's nothing like a broody chicken's glare, lol!

If she wasn't leaving broody poops in the nest, you have proof that she was getting off of the nest.