Found Baby Guineas Outside! Now what?!

[KissMeYouAnimal]

I have a small flock of Guinea Fowl along with my chickens and a while ago a male and a female guinea went missing... Well today I found out what they'd been up to. I woke up to see a group of 9 baby guineas (keets?) stumbling behind their mother. We have a outdoor cat and dog so I knew the keets wouldn't survive long on their own so I caught them all and put them in my home-made chick brooder (which I have used many times before)
After getting the baby guineas settled in with water and food I went out and found the nest in the woods. There are about 10 more eggs which are hatching right now out there and the mother won't let me near the nest so I'm just waiting and watching for those ones to hatch so I can go get them and bring them inside with the others.

Anyway, my main problem is that the keets I caught haven't even touched their food or water and I don't know how to make them eat. They seem to be pretty healthy and happy, running around under the heat lamp and peeping rather loudly but they won't drink or eat. A few of them have investigated the food but haven't tried it yet and it looks to me like the crumbles are too large for them to even try to eat. Is there some sort of special food I need to get or something? They won't touch the normal chick food.
I dipped all of their beaks in the water (which I mixed quick chick in with as well) but that is the only time they drank any. They won't touch it unless I force them to. How can I get them to drink?
Now I'm wondering if I should have just left them out there to fend for themselves against the barn cat. What should I do?!

 

[groundpecker]

You can crush the feed into smaller bits if it is too large.

Eventually they will eat and drink. No need to worry. They are probably just stressed from being removed from their mother.
Give them a day or two, and they will eat and drink.

 

[JLeigh]

I've been told they need game or turkey starter. Is that what you're feeding them? (That reminds me, I've got to go get some!).

You're very lucky to have so many keets at home with more on the way! Congratulations - and, yes, you definitely should have picked them up. They're a one-bite appetizer to a dog, and to a barn cat they're hours of torture-fun. Again, congrats. I'm envious! Send pictures.

 

[mychookschick]

Congrats on the keets! Sounds like you are doing things right... I haven't ever hatched keets (yet) but from what I have read, most guineas aren't good mothers, so they will hatch the chicks and then desert them. You did the right thing by bringing them in! The only other thing that I can think of is that someone said it is easier if you raise them with chicks, and then they think that are chickens, and are easier to handle! But that isn't necessary, of course! Congratulations again!

 

[daylily]

Don't worry about it they will drink when they are ready. and do chrush the crumble some. It is way too big for them right now. Or you can mix a little bit of the Medicated water in with it and mix it up as a bit of mash and sprinkle cherished crumble in with it. This way you can dip their beaks in that also and they will eat, as it sticks to the beak.They grow so fast that before too long the crumbles will be just right. Now get those other Keets. a broom works wonders for holding MOM and POP back.

Good Luck with your new brood! And you didn't even know you were expecting!

Congrats on the new babies to the farm!

 

[livenwpeeps]

You can also try dropping the chrushed food in front of them and let their instinct go to work. They will go after it thinking it's a bug and start eating. Once one figures it out, they all seem to get it. In my experence, guinea moms are good at brooding, they are fierce and will bite and hiss at you to get away from the eggs but once they hatch, they don't take very good care of the babies so I have always caught the little ones and put them in a brooder and raised them myself.

 

[prairie]

I had some new keets that didn't seem to be eating their starter food so a friend told me to scramble an egg and give it to them. I put an egg in a dish in the microwave for about 30 seconds and it is done then. Next I mashed it with a fork until it was really tiny pieces and put that on a large plastic lid (ice cream bucket lid) and added a little of their food into the scrambled egg --and put that in with the keets and that was all it took!!! They loved it!! I gave it to them for several days and then just quit doing it because they were eating their food so well from then on. Good luck!

 

[JLeigh]

That's a good recipe, Prairie and good info I'm going to file away for later. I learn so much here!

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Get them some Game Bird Starter crumbles. Sprinkle it in front of them, they will peck at it when they see it sprinkling around.

 

[elsfieldchickens]

Get them some Game Bird Starter crumbles. Sprinkle it in front of them, they will peck at it when they see it sprinkling around.

yes try that