Hi all, I'm a very new newbie! I've been on the forum almost everyday this past month and finally joined today 
So, my SLW chicks are about 6 wks old (and HUGE... how the heck did they grow so fast in a month, lol), and I started them on fermented non-med chick feed about a week into having them. They still had the typical mason jar chick waterer (which would always get disgusting minutes after cleaning it out and putting it back in with them)... About a week or so after that I got my poultry nipples in the mail and installed a nipple through the lid of a liter(ish) juice bottle. They took to the nipple easily, but I have not seen the water level go down... at all. I haven't personally observed them go for the nipple in a couple weeks. I offered them water in the old waterer and they will take a few sips but generally seem uninterested.
I feed them the fermented chick feed 3x/day, also throw a handful of sprouts in the coop to keep them occupied if they are in there all day (right now I'm sprouting mung bean, sunflower, and wheat for my family so that is what the chicks get to sample). If it's nice out and I'm home, they get to forage around the yard for bugs & grubs (in a welded fencing thing I made with a heavy grate on top to keep the hawks out).
So my question is, are they getting enough water? Everything I read says they need water, and they just don't seem to be drinking it. Do they get enough in the feed/sprouts/foraging? My other thought was that maybe negative pressure was building up in the bottle and so when they pecked they weren't getting any, so I check the bottle for pressure everyday but opening the lid/replacing the water etc, but still, if they drink a few sips each, that's it because the level of water in the bottle never seems to go down.
Any opinions appreciated
So, my SLW chicks are about 6 wks old (and HUGE... how the heck did they grow so fast in a month, lol), and I started them on fermented non-med chick feed about a week into having them. They still had the typical mason jar chick waterer (which would always get disgusting minutes after cleaning it out and putting it back in with them)... About a week or so after that I got my poultry nipples in the mail and installed a nipple through the lid of a liter(ish) juice bottle. They took to the nipple easily, but I have not seen the water level go down... at all. I haven't personally observed them go for the nipple in a couple weeks. I offered them water in the old waterer and they will take a few sips but generally seem uninterested.
I feed them the fermented chick feed 3x/day, also throw a handful of sprouts in the coop to keep them occupied if they are in there all day (right now I'm sprouting mung bean, sunflower, and wheat for my family so that is what the chicks get to sample). If it's nice out and I'm home, they get to forage around the yard for bugs & grubs (in a welded fencing thing I made with a heavy grate on top to keep the hawks out).
So my question is, are they getting enough water? Everything I read says they need water, and they just don't seem to be drinking it. Do they get enough in the feed/sprouts/foraging? My other thought was that maybe negative pressure was building up in the bottle and so when they pecked they weren't getting any, so I check the bottle for pressure everyday but opening the lid/replacing the water etc, but still, if they drink a few sips each, that's it because the level of water in the bottle never seems to go down.
Any opinions appreciated
