Chick won't stop chirping! AHHHHHH!

[azygous]

Bocktobery has made a lot of excellent points. I would like to stress that a constant chirping chick is not well. Just like new human infants that cry constantly, you can be certain something is wrong.

Just the fact of having a big struggle getting hatched indicates she's, at the very least, attempting to overcome that stressful effect on her tiny body. Getting some Poultry Nutri-drench and dosing her daily will give her the help she needs to get jump-started.

These chicks such as you are dealing with have a tendency to have pooping problems, either constipation or diarrhea, so you need to monitor the poop and intervene with some coconut oil if she quits pooping or you see the turds are tiny and hard. This can cause a great deal of pain and the chick may die from it.

 

[SillyJillie]

o

 

[SillyJillie]

Bocktobery has made a lot of excellent points. I would like to stress that a constant chirping chick is not well. Just like new human infants that cry constantly, you can be certain something is wrong.

Just the fact of having a big struggle getting hatched indicates she's, at the very least, attempting to overcome that stressful effect on her tiny body. Getting some Poultry Nutri-drench and dosing her daily will give her the help she needs to get jump-started.

These chicks such as you are dealing with have a tendency to have pooping problems, either constipation or diarrhea, so you need to monitor the poop and intervene with some coconut oil if she quits pooping or you see the turds are tiny and hard. This can cause a great deal of pain and the chick may die from it.

coconut oil as in feed it to her or rub in on her behind?

 

[SillyJillie]

I'm by far, not any sort of expert on chickens, but I do have my own experience. (6 years worth if that is anything)

When a chick continuously peeps like that, it is sick or unwell. When it wants to cuddle all the time, its basically the equivalent of when you have the flu and just want to stay under warm covers or get pampered by a loved one. So I would say, something is wrong.

I had one (A continuous peeper) that had hatched out of a pullet's sized egg. She was a mixed breed but both parents were breeds that are very large. So, while she was forming, she ended up not really having a lot of room in that small egg. She needed help hatching, which I did (yes, I know you are not supposed to do that, but if its going to die anyway why not help?) And she did live. But for the first few days of her life, maybe the whole week... it was non-stop peeping. (Even the broody hen that hatched her left her be) When I inspected her, I found that she was kind of bent in a way in which she could not move her legs so well. She was kind of hunched. I figured this was from being in a small egg (my fault as I didn't realize pullet eggs are not good to use for hatching).

Here is a picture of her:


I named her "Little Bear" because she looked like a teddy bear the way she was sitting there, peeping. She was a special needs hen only in the fact she did not have an ear hole on one side of her head. It would get infected and swollen, which would need cleaning out every once in a while. Even the vet was stumped for a while- thought maybe she had some bug bite her and get infected. Sadly, I lost her due to a fast car on our country road last year. Except for her ear problem she was fine.

Anyway, right now, I have a blind serama chick that also peeps non stop. She is three weeks old. I don't expect her to get much better at this point, but she has developed enough that she is now starting to eat on her own... but its been a long time coming. She still can't drink on her own only because she spills her water. This is where I have to go find some sort of water dish that she can't spill and is shallow enough she can't drown in it by accident. She also calms down only when I hold her and she too will let me hold her for HOURS if possible, without food or water... so I am in a similar boat as you with this one. I admit the constant peeping drives me crazy, but I agreed to take on this scenario and she has made so much progress so far. I do think her peeping now is probably more of a way of echo-location since she is blind. Helps her find her way around objects in her cage.

Perhaps your little bird will stop peeping so much after some time- once hatched, they are not fully developed yet, so its possible that yours just needs a bit more hang time to finish up. I wanted to ask you though- did you have any eggs that didn't hatch but were fully formed? If this is the case, it is also more likely that the eggs were exposed to some sort of pathogen that would cause defects. With my Serama chick I had 3 fully formedbut didn't hatch- and when opened one had its brains fully exposed. The other two looked ok, but probably had same or similar internal problems as the chick I'm caring for now and just didnt' make it. I'd advise giving some vitamins to your little chick... perhaps that is what it needs to fight off any problems... You'd be really surprised how much it can help!

But both of these chicks peeped constantly, although the first one mentioned did stop eventually when her legs seemed to stretch out by use.

there were only 2 D'Uccle eggs a friend gave to me. He had no problems with any of his so I'm going to say she's the only with issues. The other eggs that hatched the same day were Old English Duckwings, Polish Bearded and Egyptian Fayoumis (one of which died in the egg fully developed). Maybe I'll just give her a little extra TLC. I'm headed up to TSC now to get some vitamins. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Sounds good SillyJillie. Best wishes to you and your little peep (and the other one too!) Please keep us informed on how things are going.

 

[gmatson]

I second the nutri drench vitamins. I had a group of chicks that were slow feathering out and not growing quite as fast as they should. I nicknamed one Trouble because she would cheap almost constantly. The nutri drench is great! I noticed a difference about day 2 or 3 when Trouble quite cheaping all the time. They are still a little small for their age but they are feathering out great and catching up on their growth.

 

[Stephine]

As an alternative to a heat lamp I can recommend a ceramic heat emitter - it screws into the same lamp shade and gives off heat but no light. I like that the chicks can spread out and chiose the right temperature for them better than with a heating plate kind of set up, but they are not kept awake by light all night long. It worked really well for us (just make sure you don't get a Teflon coated one, the fumes can kill them).

 

[Maverick1]

This one chick, only stops chirping when she's in my hand. The brooder is warm enough, all the other chicks are fine. This particular one won't even try to cuddle up with the rest of them. I put feather dusters in, the rest use it; she won't. This one has almost been a problem form before the time she hatched; We had to intervene with the hatching process as she became shrink wrapped from taking too long to come out. She literally had her beak and eyes out (and open) just chirping in the egg for two days. Oh, and she was fine for the first 3 days of her life - This just started 2 days ago - She's by far the smallest (D'Uccle) of them all. Is she just cold? Crazy? I don't know what else to do, we've tried everything. I'm afraid if I hold her ALL day, she will dehydrate or starve to death. HELP! I'M AT WITS END!!!





UPDATE: Poor little Peanut didn't make it :'{ I wish I knew what was wrong

Are you sure she is warm enough? Better to be too hot than too cold. Usually chirping is she is too cold. when you hold her she is warm because your body temp is a lot warmer. Try this: put her in a box with a light over it. Make sure it is about 95Degrees oner the light. Put a small mirror in the box and she will think she is not alone. Dip your finger in water and then in the food and she should pick at it. Doesn’t hurt to make a clucking sound either when you offer her food. She is just stressed by the way she was hatched and having trouble keeping her temp up. Remember, she was in an incubator over 100. If you do that I think she will be ok. let me know how it goes