my newborn chick was born like 4+ hours ago. And we found it abandoned by momma hen. She has 4 babies that she cares for 2 additional that she attacked repeatedly so I brought them in and now the last 2 that have hatched shes moved to the furthest part of box to let die. We managed to warm this last one under the brooding lamp and seems to be well except its feathers are extremely hard/crusty and are not fluffing like the others. The roots of its downy fur has little balls on them. Its quite unusual compared to the other 8 chicks hatched.
So can I loosen this stiff mess with warm water or is it too risky and take the wait and see method. I know that if babies are sickly or have issues their momma will kill. But, the last four! That seems bizarre. The fist two were brown with black stripes and look like chipmunks and I assumed that was her reason for pickin on them or cuz they werent black like the first four. But this last one was black.
By the way, she has been hatching eggs for the last 3 weeks. Maybe she just doesn't want to do this anymore. I feel overwhelmed at times maybe she is to. Any suggestions would be helpful.
So can I loosen this stiff mess with warm water or is it too risky and take the wait and see method. I know that if babies are sickly or have issues their momma will kill. But, the last four! That seems bizarre. The fist two were brown with black stripes and look like chipmunks and I assumed that was her reason for pickin on them or cuz they werent black like the first four. But this last one was black.
By the way, she has been hatching eggs for the last 3 weeks. Maybe she just doesn't want to do this anymore. I feel overwhelmed at times maybe she is to. Any suggestions would be helpful.
