Dying ostrich chicks

[bensteph821]

Please help! any advice would be great! WE recieved four eggs through the mail...We believe the box was dropped which cracked all of the eggs open(were on 39th day when delivered)...All four born alive, one really struggled. He was first to die after 3 days. Then another two days later about then the next now looks to be dying..Isnt their anything we can do to help these birds?? MAybe compacted? I dont know. We also have four other ostrich we picked up that are about a month old ,all doing well..

This is their setup:

A small building . open with wood floors with matts they we put over the wood to try and help release some of the poop through the holes.
A grass pen which the first few days we were allowing them out to run all day until some started dying. Now we only let them out for two hours a day after they eat(two separate hours)
We have the rocks that we religiously put in their food and most are eating alot of.
Fresh water, feed three times a day a pellet which is moisened with Kale on top(this is what we were told to do by the breeder)

My concern is the grass..or maybe from being dropped.....

 

[FriendlyFlyer]

Oh man! That sounds terrible! There is nothing worse than your babies dying. Unfortunately I don't know anything about ostriches (but I think it's AMAZING that you have some! I'm jealous!) The only thing I can give you advice on is to watch them, like sit and watch for an hour or two. While you're doing that just watch and see how they act around everything. I know it's not great advice but it would be better to observe and notice a problem and be able to fix it, than not being able to do anything. I'm so sorry about your birds.

 

[bensteph821]

Is very sad...Thank you I have 3 wonderful breeders from different parts of The us That have been as helpful as they can. Seems to be a common thing within first few weeks of ostrich lives. Very hard to sat what it is..not even the experts know for sure but I figured let me try and get on this forum And see if anyone else has figured anything else out.
He's still hanging in there. Spoke to breeder and he said try and give him some food through syringe..seems he's not eating. Now just wait Aa see. Thanks for your help

 

[ChickenLord]

First 3 days huh...

I'm no osterich doc, but I'd be looking at everything I could... how about the temp? Is it staying WARM, and since they're practically a desert bird, I mean REALLY warm...

I, like everyone else, did the brooding of our chicken and kept the temp really warm for the first month... could it be that it's not warm enough for them to process the food they do eat, and are running out of nutrients from the yolk? (Assuming they suck the yolk inside like chickens doo before hatching)

Good Luck!!!