Chick will only eat mealworms.

[JuliaWesterbeek]

My chick will only eat mealworms and not her regular feed. She hasn't put on weight for 2 days now and I worried since she is acting less lively then normal... Any ideas?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Tell us about her 'regular feed'. Brand, protein percentage, calcium percentage, manufacture date, etc..

As long as the feed is appropriate, you could stop the mealworms for a while and it won't have a choice.

That said, mealworms are an excellent food for chicks. Try some boiled egg too.

 

[centrarchid]

Chick likely sick. Meal worms provided a much stronger feeding stimulus than typical feed getting an otherwise poor feeling bird interested in eating..

 

[duluthralphie]

Sounds like a spoiled chick.

If she is not eating the starter or grower, which is depending on her age, stop feeding her mealworms. Unless you want a spoiled chick that you have to feed meal worms to for the rest of it's life. It will eat feed before it starves.

 

[centrarchid]

I do not think chick is spoiled. I can get birds on deaths door to eat meal worms yet they will not eat formulated feeds or even grains.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good points.

Additionally it will help us to know how old it is, how many other chicks it is with and what is the brooder environment, (size, temp in the warm spot and the cool spot, bedding and ventilation)

 

[azygous]

Yes, please tell us how old this chick is. If it's in the first two weeks of hatch, it may be suffering from failure to thrive syndrome. The fact it will only eat meal worms tells me it's sick, has no appetite, and may be failing.

I would get some Poultry Nutri-drench and some tofu. Crumble the tofu and sprinkle some Nutri-drench over it. Sometimes tofu can bridge the gap to growing an appetite in a failing chick if the problem is lagging development and not something more complicated. I've had success with tofu and Nutri-drench in restoring strength and appetite in a flagging chick.

I have also discovered it stimulates a chick to eat when placed with its mates. Offer plenty for all, and the problem chick often responds to competition and may start eating again.

 

[JuliaWesterbeek]

The chick hatched on November 16th and is less lively and I think she is sick. The brooder was very small but I moved them to a brooder double the size. There are 3 more chicks with her and they are doing perfectly fine and they are eating. This morning they tipped over their water leading to half the brooder being wet. The others went to the dry side but she decided to go to the wet side so she was shivering. I dried her up and gave her some mealworms dipped into liquid vitamins. Should I keep feeding her mealworms or just let her be?

 

[duluthralphie]

If you think she is sick, or failure to thrive you can try whatever you can or want, just try not to get your hopes too high. I have tried everything with the failure to thrive ones and it just does not seem to work.

They are only in the egg 21 days that is not very long to go from egg to fully alive and functioning animal. Stuff happens, things don't go right and they just can't make it. It is sad, but it is mother nature. There is a reason they hatch out 15 eggs 3-4 times a year. It takes that many for ground nesting birds to keep their population up between predation and birth defects.

I feel for you. Good luck in whatever you do.

 

[JuliaWesterbeek]

Thank you! My chick is doing a lot better but I am afraid that she will die during the night (she almost did last night)...