Hatching my Silkie eggs... (Final Update)

[The Sheriff]

Oh no, I am so sorry. Any idea why? I am just heartsick for you. Hugs.

Mary

 

[Poliwag]

Quote:
It had been cheeping non-stop since it was born. It only stopped a couple times when it was sleeping but after a while it just wouldn't stop even when it was sleeping. My mum seems to think something was wrong with it. I couldn't get it to eat food. I never saw it drink water on its own but I did force feed it the water to try to teach it to drink a couple of times (dip its beak into the water a little). The chick had its eyes closed a lot for the past few hours it was alive. Seemed very tired but moved around. The light in the box where it was is only a 25W (normal bulb) and it has been quite cool today for being almost summer. The box it was in had a wire box at one end with a wooden box at the other where the light and a teddy was.

Its cheeps were so loud that I kept moving it to try to find a place where we wouldn't hear it.


Life's so unfair ._.

 

[teddiliza]

Maybe it wanted a warmer lightbulb. If it died under the lamp it might have been trying to get warm. 25 watts doesn't seem like it would put off enough heat. Try 125 next time. The chicks at the feed store last year didn't have the lightbulbs close enough and were cheeping-noisy as heck, so I fiddled with them so that they were lower and they immediately quieted and went to sleep. I keep my brooder box at 95 degrees and have had great luck. I always leave a thermometer in the bottom of the brooder box overnight before I put my chicks in it and make sure it's at between 95 and 100 degrees F directly under the lamp (or 37 to 37.5 celsius). If you pick up a young chick and its body feels cool to the touch instead of warm-something is wrong. Cold feet in a young chick is a bad sign. I'm sorry for your loss. It may have also been something completely not related that you couldn't control either.

 

[Poliwag]

Quote:
I live in Australia and it currently summer here... up untill just today, it has been really hot. The area the chick was in is very small, if I were to use a 125 watt light bulb, it would likely burn the chick. Mind you, I had a lot in there for it to cuddle up to. I had a teddy bear, a towel and a small box thing inside for the chick to hide in. The box area was also covered by a sheet.... oh god! I hope I didn't freeze the chick to death

 

[PandoraTaylor]

I am sorry for your loss....