My baby has been trying for over 24 hours to hatch. He has made a small hole and has barely gotten any bigger, I see his foot sticking out of it. He is peeping sooo loud and I have no idea what to do. They were due to hatch friday and saturday. Please please please give me any ideas you have! I have him set on a warm wet paper towel in his incubator and still no progress but tons and tons of screaming peeps --Katherine
NO ONE? I need to know! I opened the bator last night to get the 5 babies out and I may have shrink wrapped him inside!
I'm no expert, but you can try to mist him with some warm water and try to help the egg crack open a bit where it's already cracked.
I would try picking a little bit of the shell. If it bleeds stop. If it does not bleed pick a little more of the shell. If his foot is out first you very likely will have problems.
I have had chicks take over 24hrs from pip to hatch. One thing to check if they do take a long time is to make sure they are not stuck. I have had a couple that died after pipping and I didn't realize they were stuck. This was when I first started hatching. Many people have said do not help under any circumstances as they will die. I have since helped. I usually put a cloth and paper towel on a heating pad and have a dish of warm water and q-tips or I use my fingertip to keep the membrane soften while breaking off the shell. If you can't see the beak, I would carefully peal the shell without tearing the membrane around the line the chick would normally zip. Is there a hole where the chick has penetrated the membrane? Also there are two membranes an outer membrane which usually look white and an inner clear membrane where the blood vessels are. You could pick the shell on both sides of the pip and see if you can see the beak and moisten the membrane with warm water with either your fingertip or a Q-tip. If you see the beak and the chick is alive then put it back into the incubator to let it hatch itself. I usually wait at least 24 hrs from pip before helping the chick zip and if it is stuck then I may help it hatch. You have to be very careful as the blood vessels may still be in tact and not dried enough and the chick can bleed to death. After I have zipped the shell if the chick isn't stuck, put it back in the incubator to finish hatching. You may want to put the egg in a moist paper towel or mist the egg. There are times when I have had to assist the chick hatch too but I try not to if I don't have to. Good luck...
Well, we helped him hatch. I dont think hes going to make it, but hes trying. he had a giant nasty welp on his back and his leg may be deformed. He was stuck to the lining of the shell. Hes sitting in the incubator right now, we will see what happens. It was either he was going to die in the shell, or we could try and it was a 50 50 shot. I guess we will see what happens.
