Chick Body Temperature

[nekomi]

Hi everyone! I have a question about the body temperature for very young chicks. I just picked up my order of 12 standard chicks this morning from Meyer Hatchery, and have them set up in a brooder in my sunroom. We are running a space heater in the room to keep it around 55 - 65 degrees, and then we have a 250 watt bulb, set to 90 degrees with a thermostat, running over the brooder. It's doing its job nicely and keeping air temps on one side of the brooder right around 90 degrees, with the other half of the brooder gradually getting cooler away from the bulb. I have an infrared thermometer (the kind with a red laser pointer, that you point at an object and it gives you the surface temps), and I was measuring the chicks' temps, and was surprised to find them anywhere from 88 to 110 degrees depending on where the chick was hanging out. Have any of you done something similar before, and is this kind of range normal? I'm mostly concerned about them overheating somehow - they WILL move away from the hottest part of the brooder if they need to, right? Thanks for any reassurance or info! I just love my little chicks, they are so cute.

 

[gritsar]

I have never used one of those thermometers. I can tell you that they will show you definite signs of being too cold or too hot.
If they are huddling under the heat source, too cold.
Getting as far away from the heat source as possible, holding their wings out away from their body and sometimes even panting and they are too hot.
They will move back and forth under the heat source as their body temp. dictates.

 

[JenMT]

I think that as long as they are healthy they will move away from the lamp if they get too hot, I don't know what a normal body temp for a chick should be. I would also be interested in knowing that. They cannot regulate body temps at such a young age that is why they need the heat lamp and lots of water....good luck!