Chick that never learned how to eat

[ochochicas]

His eyes appear totally fine. There is no discoloration or anything to the pupil. I'm not really sure what his problem is. I'm sure he can see something since he follows his sister around, jumps up on things, and will crawl under a washcloth the second you put it in the brooder. If I put food on a towel he will grab for it, but only gets lucky about one try out of every ten.

On another note, he's figured out how to eat when I put a bowl of food in front of him. It is very awkward and uncoordinated when he eats. He basically just grabs at whatever and eats it once his beak is lucky enough to make contact. It is one of the most pathetically sad things I've seen. At this point I think he knows he's on the verge of starving to death so he's gorging on as much food as he can. Each time he eats he's a little better than the time before, so I'm hoping once he's not so weak he'll start acting a bit more normally. He's eating very tiny pieces of pea, corn, cantaloupe, rice, crumbles and water on top.

 

[azygous]

Your chick is probably doing as well as can be expected for the circumstances. In his instinct to live, he will keep trying to eat and drink. I think eventually he will get proficient at it and you won't need to worry so much.

I've had special needs chicks in the past and I was able to get them more interested in eating by moistening their crumbles, and also crumbling up tofu with Poultry Nutridrench sprinkled over it. If you can, try to get some of that. It's really a wonderful product and can really give your chick a huge boost.

 

[ochochicas]

Baby is doing really well now! Thank you everyone for the input. He walks normally and I can't tell he ever had a leg problem He is eating pretty well, but the other chicks sometimes steal food from his mouth and he gets upset. He also has a lot of unsuccessful pecking where he come up with nothing but air. I think he might be a little bit "slow". I will keep weighing him every day to make sure he's gaining weight.

Pictures to come...

 

[Bridebeliever]

Yay! Thanks for the update!

 

[bluema]

 

[ochochicas]

The little peeper has gained about 50% his body weight since Sunday. Here he is standing in the food bowl, which is pretty typical. He is eating, but in his own "special" kind of way.

He wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Bridebeliever]

I wish I was so confident about myself that I could just stand in my food and gain a ridiculous amount of weight!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[pattyhen]

precious pic of him. I'm so happy he's gaining weight and doing so much better. You did a great job with him bless your heart.


Patty

 

[sniper338]

This chick has imprinted on you as its mama hen. I doubt it will learn from the other chicks, but it should be kept with them since that's the best environment.

So, mama hen, you need to take this chick and put some crumbles down and then place the chick where it can see them. Then "peck" at the crumbles with your finger, while scratching and rearranging the crumbles, back and forth. You want to awaken the instinct in the chick to scratch and peck.

Do it for a few minutes several times a day until the chick begins to scratch and peck and eat.

You might get some live meal worms to make the game even more interesting.

This....^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I do it with every hatch from day one...

 

[Bridebeliever]

Yes, we did this as well, without ever reading about it. We were trying to get our 3 year old babies to eat so we started pecking the floor with our finger and bingo, the chicks went nuts on food! They are amazing instinctive little creatures. "When raising chickens you must think like a chicken, not like a human!" My new motto!