Dying guineas at feed store!!! Please help!!!

[cjeanean]

Honestly, I buy my feed from them and haven't run across anything moldy, but I don't think they'd admit it even if it was :\\ They are caring for the chicks, and I did see their feed, and it appeared to be fine. Don't know if there were bugs or anything. The guineas have food, water, and are in a warm brooder.....but something's not right, and there are about 30 of them left and I don't want those 30 to die!

 

[speckledhen]

I thought about the moldy feed and that's entirely possible with them spilling water on the feed. Guineas will do okay on regular chick starter, however, they will not grow to the full size they normally would if fed much higher in protein game bird starter.

 

[talkinboutmygirls]

I am no expert - a newbie here - but I raised 3 keets from 1 day old till now - 5 months later, on chicken starter. After researching online, I found that if you are raising them with chicks, it is fine for them. If you are raising just keets, then the absolute best is turkey starter. Mine have done fine on the chick starter - now they are dining on bugs galore and not eating much feed at all.

Here is an excerpt from a breeder's site regarding heat:
The room the brooder is in, whether outdoors or in a house will determine the need for a heat lamp or regular light bulb, combined with the temperature surrounding the brooder and time of the year. Temps need to start at 95 degrees, and drop 5 degrees weekly until the keets are fully feathered. Beware of temperature increases during the hot hours of the day, or drops overnight and adjust the height of the lamp to maintain the minimum required temps directly under the light at floor level.

They do run around waaaay more than the chicks - just their nature.

 

[kinnip]

I don't want the to die either, there's entirely too much of that in the world.

The feed is really all I can think of. It could be that they had a bag sitting around open for awhile and decided to use it up. I'm really at the end of my knowledgebase. Try asking them to change to a gamebird starter, that would get new food in the brooder. If it is moldy feed, the change should be enough to bring them around to health again.

 

[speckledhen]

If you are brooding chicks with guineas, it's better for the guineas to eat chick starter than for the chicks to eat gamebird starter. And as far as their activity level, I used to call them my little "zoom-zooms"

 

[cjeanean]

Well, nothing's changed, I guess the guineas are still dying. I mentioned how their crops felt kinda spongey, and the 'expert' at the feed store had no clue what that could mean. I told him the suggestions I got here, but I'm still wondering myself about the seemingly air filled crops. advice from anyone else who may be able to help is welcome! Thanks everyone!

 

[chick4chicks]

Thank you very much for caring about these babies. Bless You for trying to help them. It is so sad when people responsible for them really don't care enough to take the dead ones out. I hope the poor babies all recover.

 

[animalgirl2010]

I dont know much about guineas but I am from southeast missouri and I went to our feed store and they also have many guineas dead in the cage and all healthy chickens next to them. I was going to get some guineas but I thought that maybe they where sick with so many dead ones in there.

 

[cjeanean]

Hmmmm, you wouldn't happen to know which hatchery they came from, do you? The ones at my feed store came from Estes Hatchery.....(as far as I know)

 

[dlhunicorn]

Birds seemed to be gasping for air every few minutes, and they staggered at times.

outside of it being way too hot, then what you have described seems to be what is called "brooder-pnuemonia" which is in fact , as someone mentioned earlier, aspergillosis ... here is info on that:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/206100.htm​