Bad chicken parenting 101

[Harper Lawing]

Hi y’all, so today was really busy and crazy and I completely forgot to feed my 7 week old chicks, they stay in the run with their mom, 3 aunts and dad and the older chickens have a larger food dispenser so they were good with food and have a water dispenser also. My chicks, however, have a smaller dispenser that runs out in a day for their food and water and I’m really worried that they haven’t had any food or water today and that they might get sick or even worse. Does anyone know how long chicks can survive without water or food. It’s really late right now and I guess I’ll find out in the morning how they’re doing.

 

[TheYLWFlock]

If it’s night, it should be fine, they should be sleeping, but get on it ASAP. They’ll be ok I think. If it was only a day they’ll make it. If they were starving they’d find something. Remember, chickens come from the wild fowl of I domestic, and they didn’t have feeders with food put out for them constantly! so yes I believe they’ll be fine. Suggestions though, get a bigger, better feeder that lasts longer and doesn’t run out in a day. In my opinion, we shouldn’t be worrying about how long they can go without food or water, they should always have it (unless people do special feeding at certain times a day, although I believe that many people have their food in for whenever the birds are hungry) so being able to have a large enough feeder or waterer is a must have. Keep us updated! If anything does happen (I’m sure it won’t) there are plenty of other helpful people here.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi y’all, so today was really busy and crazy and I completely forgot to feed my 7 week old chicks, they stay in the run with their mom, 3 aunts and dad and the older chickens have a larger food dispenser so they were good with food and have a water dispenser also. My chicks, however, have a smaller dispenser that runs out in a day for their food and water and I’m really worried that they haven’t had any food or water today and that they might get sick or even worse. Does anyone know how long chicks can survive without water or food. It’s really late right now and I guess I’ll find out in the morning how they’re doing.

What is in the older chicken's feed dispenser? Do they have access to that since they are in a run with the others?

Sometimes if life is too busy and you are overloaded, the best thing to do is downsize, so maybe re-homing some birds to ease your load may be a good idea.