Chicks are sleeping a whole lot more on the second day: normal?

[Raen]

I got my babes yesterday morning (they were 2 days old, hatchery chicks), and they spent basically all day eating, drinking, playing. I barely saw them sleep at all, except for occasional exhausted face-plants. Today, though, they're sleeping a lot. When they're up and around, they seem fine, eating and drinking, but they're much less active today. Is this normal, or should I be worried? They're getting only chick starter feed right now, no treats yet.

 

[mother o' chicks72]

they're probably just resting. yesterday was probably stressful for them as they had to get used to a new home, I think it's normal for them to sleep alot on the second day

 

[Mahonri]

They are resting and GROWING....

 

[Raen]

Yeah, I think they're fine. They certainly are growing; it's shocking how much longer their little wing feathers are from yesterday. When they're awake, they're all over the place, busily establishing their tiny little pecking order. It's a blast watching them!

Check out those big-girl wing feathers:

Beatrice:

Estelle:

 

[donrae]

Do they have a cooler area of the brooder they can move to? An area that's room temp or cooler? That's the only thing I'd be concerned about, seems a lot of folks overheat their babies.

 

[nittanyxi]

last spring I got my first 15 chicks. Same thing happend to me. when I got them they were all moving around and then all of a sudden they were just laying there looking like they were on their last leg. They were all fine. They just sleep a lot in the beginning.

 

[Raen]

I've got the light set up in one corner of the brooder, the other side is room temp (63 degrees). They're resting in the outer glow of the light, not right in the center, so I think temp is fine.

Unfortunately, one of my EEs died this evening, I think possibly of internal injuries. She got trampled pretty badly this morning by the other chicks, and wasn't "right" the rest of the day. By this evening, she was barely breathing and wouldn't open her eyes or take water; she died shortly after. I posted a thread about it, but after I realized it was not Henrietta, but Josephine who passed. RIP Josi.

The rest of the little flock is acting completely normal, so I don't think it was anything contagious. Hopefully that will be my only loss.

 

[nivtup]

Eat, sleep, poop, sleep, play, sleep.

Repeat.

 

[txhomegrown]

ALL babies sleep a lot. It doesn't matter if they are human babies, chickens, puppies or whatever. They just naturally sleep a lot. What else do they have to do besides as mentioned above....eat,play,poop,sleep ....repeat

 

[Raen]

It was just that the first day it was more like: eat eat eat play eat eat drink eat eat (sleep 30 seconds) eat eat eat play eat eat drink (sleep 30 seconds) eat eat eat. These are my first chicks, I didn't know what was normal. Guess they were just hungry after the trip!