Help! I lost my guinea keet!

[LivingFate]

Ugh! I have 4 guinea keets about 2 wks old now and had them in my basement in a big box, and went to check on them and 1 is missing!!!! I have looked all over the place and its no where to be found? Could it have ran out the basement door? Its quite a distance and in a seperate room the outside door. Where could it be???? Where do Guinea keets like to be? I am distraut.

 

[FlockEweFarm]

Try turning off the light in the room if you can, make it as dark as possible, but be careful so you dont step on the little bugger. Then get a flashlight and sit in a comfortable place near the box, and wait. They dont like to get too far away from their friends, so you should be able to hear it start peeping prettty soon. Good luck! They can drive you crazy, I have 5 of them that are just a little older.

 

[menageriemama]

I agree with calamity, I lost a keet in our garage and did just that and it worked. They do not like to be alone! Just be patient, it will show up

.

 

[LivingFate]

Thanks for those who replied! I did as you said but didn't show up so I kept the light off and walked around very carefully, finally found it 3 hrs later sleeping on some clothes that I had sorted to was. It managed to get into the sleeve of one of the shirts so all you could see was its little head.

Agh! Well I put a mesh screen on top of the box as much as I could now so that should be the last time that happens!

Off to research how to clip the wings unless someone here can tell me? Is it the same as parrots and such? Its been a handful of years since I've clipped wings but if so it should come back to me...

 

[Northwoodsguineas]

I'm glad you found your keet. I thought it strange it went to sleep isolated from the other birds. We have over a hundred keets of various ages in several different makeshift brooders. We have had several escape and they normally call loudly when separated from the other birds.

Hypothermia can be a problem quick when a young keet is out of the brooder. We had a week old bird that was in the brooder become listless and flopping its head about oddly. I thought it could be sick. But I took it out of the brooder and placed it quickly in an incubator because its head felt cold. In about 3 hours it was fine, and has been OK since. I think you were lucky your lost bird found a warm place to sleep.

 

[FlockEweFarm]

You might want to wait a little bit before you clip its wings. Mine went through this really weird growth spurt, and their wings changed length and shape and all kinds of dimensions, and they just got odd looking, though now they are looking a little more normal. Glad you found it, and that is weird that it went off away from the others, mine freak out when they are seperated, and you can hear them all over heck and gone. Good luck with em.