chick hatched with navel not closed! what do?

asteria01

Chirping
5 Years
Jan 2, 2015
148
8
84
CA
hi, i had my first hatch this afternoon and it went pretty smoothly. the chick hatched by herself and pretty quickly on day 20. shes the first one to come out.. however, she has a bit of what looks like either yolk or something still at the entrance of her navel, so it hasnt closed yet. the cord is no longer there as it came off by itself. shes a fiesty one, already trying to walk and her chirps are sound pretty strong. she is responsive to her surroundings. ive added a bit of neosporin on there to try to prevent any infection. shes still in the incubator. is there anything else i can do? try to push it in? please help, thanks!
 
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My advice (and it may not be the best) is to leave it alone for the next day or so that she's in the incubator. That can take care of itself and close and dry up on its own. I have seen this a few times and even though it looks very gross int he incubator, it's usually dried up and doing ok once the chick fluffs up and gets going. In my opinion, the big thing is to see how the chick is acting, and it sounds like yours is doing ok. It sounds like it may have hatched a little early - hot spot in your incubator, maybe?
 
i see... so how long does it usually take for the navel to go down to the normal size, and when it is, is it not supposed to stick out anymore? lol ive never even thought about the fact that chicks had navels until i saw it today! as of now it seems to have gone in/dried a bit, but still sticking out. shes now attempting to groom herself, peck at eggshell bits, and starting to stand/walk in a more sturdy manner.

and yes, since its still air incubator i wouldnt be surprised if her egg was in a hot spot. i am now waiting on her sibling to hatch! from the looks of it, its a black chick! super surprised as the hens i got the eggs from arent black at all! they were mostly red/white.
 
In my experience it's pretty dried up by the time they come out of the incubator (1-2 days after hatch) IF they're fluffed up. Check the chick when you take it out and see if you still notice it without moving down out of the way. Then check again for the next few days. If you don't see a problem then it's probably fine.

Now - I see say it's probably fine because that's how I've dealt with it and those few chicks turned out fine. If you're seeing something like intestines hanging out then that's a different story. If you can see it and the other chicks can then they'll probably start picking at it, which will make it worse obviously.
 
i see.... well the second chick hatched in the wee hours of the morning today, also with a bit of yolk left. i think next time i need to add a fan to my incubator to get the temperature constant throughout and see if that helps.

oh and the first chick is mostly fluffed, and she has pooped in the incubator, right in the water reserve below.... its a greenish poop. i assume thats normal? but now the incubators starting to get dirty... there are still eggs that are supposed to hatch. is that okay?
 
I haven't been on here! It sounds like your little chick is doing good. Yes, it's ok that the rest are supposed to hatch. It's best to not open the incubator until they're all finished hatching. So, it's fine that they're running around in there - I've found that the darker I keep it the better. They see light and start lurching around.
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