First, I want to say that I totally understand how foolish it may seem to worry this much about a bird that cost me $1.50 and I'm planning to kill in 6 weeks. This is less about worry and more about learning.
Here's the story. I've always raised pastured rangers. Never lost a chick. I lost one chicken once at about 5w when I put too many in one box for transport. However, I've never lost a baby. Now, I'm doing regular meat birds (I would call them Cornish X but I saw the thread
) that will grow out in 7-8 weeks instead of 12.
We lost one right away, probably due to a flaw in the design of the brooder which has since been corrected. Since, two have died, for a total of three out of 50. This was really disturbing for us. I guess I make a terrible farmer.
I'm tired of going out to my brooder of happy little fluffs and finding a dead one. It's taking some of the joy out of the process for me.
So now I have one little guy who just isn't thriving. Most of the other birds look appropriate for 2 weeks, but this little guy looks like he's about 1 week, still a puffball, just a hint of real feathers coming in. His crop was empty last night and so I decided, what the hell, it's going to die anyway, so I decided to force feed him. We ground feed to a powder, mixed it with water, and filled him up. Worked fine.
Still alive this morning. So I did it again. I've seen it poop a couple times and so I know it's making it through.
I wanted to get some advice since this seems to be working. I think I'm giving him too much water in the mix, but I don't know what the right balance of food/water is to a chick, how fragile/dangerous electrolyte balance is for them.
Also, our feed is a custom blend of whole grains that is ground fresh at a farm. (It's also really affordable, I'm quite lucky).
I have a bunch of various flours and this morning I mixed in garbanzo bean flour because I was in a hurry. I also have almond, coconut, graham, semolina, etc. etc.
So I'm wondering, without blowing a bunch of money on baby bird formula (again, this chicken was $1.50), how would you approach handfeeding a bird? How much water to feed? Should I feed it yolks instead?
Thanks for thoughts/comments.
Here's the story. I've always raised pastured rangers. Never lost a chick. I lost one chicken once at about 5w when I put too many in one box for transport. However, I've never lost a baby. Now, I'm doing regular meat birds (I would call them Cornish X but I saw the thread
) that will grow out in 7-8 weeks instead of 12. We lost one right away, probably due to a flaw in the design of the brooder which has since been corrected. Since, two have died, for a total of three out of 50. This was really disturbing for us. I guess I make a terrible farmer.
I'm tired of going out to my brooder of happy little fluffs and finding a dead one. It's taking some of the joy out of the process for me.
So now I have one little guy who just isn't thriving. Most of the other birds look appropriate for 2 weeks, but this little guy looks like he's about 1 week, still a puffball, just a hint of real feathers coming in. His crop was empty last night and so I decided, what the hell, it's going to die anyway, so I decided to force feed him. We ground feed to a powder, mixed it with water, and filled him up. Worked fine.
Still alive this morning. So I did it again. I've seen it poop a couple times and so I know it's making it through.
I wanted to get some advice since this seems to be working. I think I'm giving him too much water in the mix, but I don't know what the right balance of food/water is to a chick, how fragile/dangerous electrolyte balance is for them.
Also, our feed is a custom blend of whole grains that is ground fresh at a farm. (It's also really affordable, I'm quite lucky).
I have a bunch of various flours and this morning I mixed in garbanzo bean flour because I was in a hurry. I also have almond, coconut, graham, semolina, etc. etc.
So I'm wondering, without blowing a bunch of money on baby bird formula (again, this chicken was $1.50), how would you approach handfeeding a bird? How much water to feed? Should I feed it yolks instead?
Thanks for thoughts/comments.
