Free rein feeding method

[Canadian Wind]

All have healthy looking solid stools and are hopping around like spring chickens apart from the one with the beak issue who is soggy from from being cleaned and drying out under the heater, hopefully she/he’ll soon perk up now I’ve stopped grinding the chia.

Yeah, good idea as chia seeds are very mucilaginous. Same with flax.

I'm very much enjoying reading about your experiment, btw.

 

[Ital]

Yeah, good idea as chia seeds are very mucilaginous. Same with flax.

I'm very much enjoying reading about your experiment, btw.

Thanks for the support much appreciated, it’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.
Daisy (with the beak issue) just gets up to eat some salt and dink water before going back under the heater, hoping she knows what’s best.

 

[Ital]

Update day 10 since hatching..

Daisy was back to scratching around and eating the following morning and no more beak issues since I stopped grinding the chia so hopefully problem solved.

The food dye arrived and works well for identification, it’s especially useful now as they have grown feathers and are mostly identical apart from their painted tails.

There has been both drought and flooding as the water dispenser became blocked with shavings which I suspect has affected their progress as they didn’t seem too happy about either but thankfully they all survived the experience.

The chilli flakes have been mostly ignored so I’ve replaced them with alfalfa seeds.

Weights..

Green 24g
Yellow 27.6g
White 31g
Pink 31.3g
Red 33.5g
Light blue 36g
Dark blue 36.3g
Orange 36.4g
Purple 37.6g
Black 42.5g

Bit concerned about green not gaining as much as the others, it could be the same bird that had the beak issue but not sure as they’re all so similar.
Black has much darker colouring than any of the others so I suspect the reason for a near treble weight gain in a week is probably genetic.

Had a second look at last week’s notes and most of them have almost trebled their weight in 7 days, is this normal?

 

[Ital]

It’s been a difficult week. A small plank of wood I was using across the top of their coop to add some ventilation when I cover them in a towel at night slipped between the bars and landed on light blue.
She couldn’t move her legs so I’ve been supporting her at quail height and walking her around the various foods and water dispensers every half an hour.

Today she can hold her weight standing and walk a short distance but tends to fall over a lot so prefers to shuffle along on her bum.

Managed to get her to eat some turmeric and black pepper in coconut oil from a spoon but she’s quite particular about which foods she eats and only ate a small amount, she still eats plenty of her usual food which gives me some hope.

I was also a bit worried about yellow because she doesn’t eat much variety from the containers and mostly eats from the floor but I looked up the amino acid ratios and total protein for the items she does eat from the containers and with the floor debris I think she’s probably doing ok so I’ve stopped worrying.

They seem to have varying tastes, reaching the same targets via differing combinations of ingredients.

She eats..
Chlorella - in small amounts
Crickets - in small amounts
Oyster/egg shells - in small amounts
Poppy seeds - a lot
Floor debris - favoured above all else.

The pine shavings we’re getting kicked into the food and water dispensers so I kept some in their nesting section but replaced the rest with expanded clay pebbles which are a vast improvement over shavings but I’ve had to temporarily return to using kitchen towel in the main area to make it easier on light blues legs. I’ll put the expanded clay back as soon as I can as it’s easier to keep clean, dry, and pretty much infinitely reusable.

They’re growing amazingly fast and beginning to show gender, I’ll keep weighing them weekly.

 

[Kiki]

I'd like to see how they are looking.
I have some 24 hour old chicks I can start weighing daily if you would like me to.

 

[Kiki]

24 hours old:

 

[Canadian Wind]

Managed to get her to eat some turmeric and black pepper in coconut oil from a spoon but she’s quite particular about which foods she eats and only ate a small amount, she still eats plenty of her usual food which gives me some hope.

Good call on the turmeric and black pepper., very good for inflammation. Even if she just took a little bit, it doesn't take too much to have effect. Hopefully it works the same in birds.

 

[Ital]

I'd like to see how they are looking.
I have some 24 hour old chicks I can start weighing daily if you would like me to.

I’ve not found much info on weights so that’d be really interesting. Are yours standards or jumbo? Sooo cute

 

[Ital]

Good call on the turmeric and black pepper., very good for inflammation. Even if she just took a little bit, it doesn't take too much to have effect. Hopefully it works the same in birds.

I’ll try to get her to eat some more today, it works better than food dye for identification. Bcp in black pepper is also a cb2 agonist so might help with the pain too.

 

[Kiki]

I’ve not found much info on weights so that’d be really interesting. Are yours standards or jumbo? Sooo cute

Mine are standard.
I started weighing them yesterday at 2 days old and I just got finished weighing them right now at 3 days old.
I am only weighing three because only three stand out are a different color from the rest.
I grabbed the biggest looking one today and weighed him too. He's Mr. Big.

Yellow is on the far left and orange is the 3rd from the left...just so you can see how different they look from the rest. Easy to pick out.