Brooding help needed

[sawilliams]

Yeah, i watched a couple of YouTube vids recommending paper towel and my wife bought a massive box of the stuff at Sam's club. Just dont understand all the splayed legs

When splayed leg is not injury, or flooring related it is usually nutrition though it can sometimes be genetic also. Same goes for slipped tendon. If it was genetic or hatch related you would usually start seeing signs in the first few days after about a week it's more likely nutrition or injury. Vitimans is one of the first treatments for both splay leg and slipped tendon (aside from physical correction and rehab). I always do at least the first 1-2 weeks with vitamin water as a personal safety precaution.

 

[Robertrayklein2]

Thanks a bunch. You have been very helpful. Vitamin water will be Definitely tryed next time cause i doubt its genetic as it happened with my eggs as well as mail order

 

[Sara L]

Some paper towels are too slippery for quail chicks. I never had a problem with splayed leg for chicken chicks using paper towels, but had problems with quail chicks on it. I changed to kitchen shelf liner and haven't had splayed leg issues since. It's the kind that looks like a squishy grid.

 

[007Sean]

Even though paper towels are sometimes recommend for bedding, they can be slippery for newly hatched chicks to walk on....I use aspen shavings for bedding. If I'm hatching button quail, I only use one sheet of paper towels to spread feed out on, till they catch on to using a feeder.
Another non-slip material is the rubberized cupboard shelving liner. Easy to use and clean up. I use Nutri-Drench for 1 to 2 weeks in their waterers. If any have leg problems, I give them Nutri-Drench full strength, followed by plain water with a small syringe. Just dab it on their beak or side of beak and they will swallow it.

 

[Erkenstein]

Change flooring to shelf liner, including in the incubator when they hatch since that is where splay leg starts. Check nutrition in parent birds, and use chickstart or other vitamins in water.

Why are they dying with only splay leg? That shouldn't happen if they have access to food and water. Check that food is ground up so they can eat it. Learn to hobble chicks (tape or pipe cleaner) and do it during the first day so their hips don't harden in the splay position.

 

[Robertrayklein2]

I tried hobbling legs they would just lay around till they died chicks i have left are eating and healthy