Bloody wingtip on week old keet

[RossB]

Hello all, I'm a new member from Central Texas. We found a nest of Guinea eggs out at our farm and decided to try and hatch them. A month later we have 6 beautiful keets. They are a week old now and doing well. Checked on them this morning and one of the keets has a bloody wing tip. Of course some of the others want to pick at it. What do I need to do?

Thanks in advance for any info. Great forum and group you have here!

Ross

 

[RossB]

I have been using a clear incandescent bulb for heat in their brooder. I did a little reading around and it sounds like switching to an red heat bulb tends to lessen their pecking on each other. I figured it was worth a shot. Look like to me that the color change alone tends to make the "sore" spot on the keet less visible. We'll see....

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes red brooder lamps are ideal to discourage pecking, as well as allow the chicks to sleep better at night. Unfortunately most of the ones available are 250 watt, which not only is a fire hazard, but for warm months of the year is pretty hot. It needs to be raised pretty high to keep your brooder temperatures within a healthy range. I would never use one without a floor thermometer, and the minimum height to raise the lamp (or any lamp) is 18 inches from the chicks. There are 125 watt red brooder light bulbs available online. They used to make 60 watt incandescent light bulbs, but those are not available now.

 

[RossB]

Thanks for the reply. I went to PetSmart. They have reptile lights down to 25w. I purchased a 25w and 75w. The 75w is giving me a temp in the low 90's directly under it at 18".

 

[RossB]

Just to update, the reptile light is working great for our keets. They pretty well quit picking on the bloody wingtip as soon as I made the light change and it has completely healed now.

This the bulb I purchased:

And I did find this distance/heat output chart on the box to be pretty accurate: