Help! My guinea keets are starving to death!!!!!!!

[1st_chicken]

After my guineas hatched i gave them organic chick feed, and they were eating it. the bag was about three months old. but after a week or two they stopped! and they refuse to eat anything at all not oatmeal not buckwheat. they would eat nothing but worms. but now they are a month old and they are so thin and starving and they still wonlt eat anything but worms. what do i do? two of them already died of starvation!

 

[critters]

I don't have alot of experience but I would try scrambling eggs then add equal amount of chick starter and see if they won't eat....
something else my young ones love is the hard boiled egg yolk all crumbled up....sometimes gone before I can set down...

I would add sugar to their water until I could get some pediolyte and poly-vi-sol ( without iron) to add to their water for nutrients...
these both are used for infants but can put much vitamins back into the young ones.

hopefully someone more experienced will read your post but until then this might help!

sorry you lost some already but good luck with the rest...

 

[PeepsCA]

That's really odd, most keets are eatin' machines from day one and don't stop or even slow down on the food consumption until they are older and out free ranging for greens, bugs and seeds.

Have you tried other starter crumble feeds? They need high protein at least 24% at this age, but higher would be better if you can get it, especially now. Were you feeding them meal worms or earth worms? They can actually get harmful worms/parasites from earthworms.

The scrambled eggs, electrolytes and vitamins are all good suggestions, I think I'd try some finely chopped spinach too, the green may attract their attention (be sure to provide them some chick grit tho). Yogurt and probiotics may help too at this point. You definitely need to get something into them right away, hopefully there's B vitamins in the poly vi sol to help stimulate their appetites, otherwise I'd suggest finding some specific poultry vitamins for the water, and be sure to dip their beaks a few times a day and make sure they are getting a few swallows each time. Tractor Supply usually has save-a-chick packets, it contains vitamins and electrolytes.

Only other suggestion I have is get a chick or 2, or a couple additional keets that can show your keets what food they are supposed to be eating, they will hopefully follow by example. (I would throw away the old starter feed tho, and get something fresh, and high protein as suggested above).

 

[mrslb333]

Mine used to go nuts over broccoli. Could it be some sort of parasitic infestation thats troubling them?
I hope you get this sorted poor babies

 

[speckledhen]

Maybe the feed was old and moldy. If so, that would explain why they wouldn't eat it. Throw it out and get fresh feed.

 

[Wynette]

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If that's the case, it could also explain the deaths.

 

[mrslb333]

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Good thinking. The OP said the feed was 3 months old was it a bag that had been opened a while?

 

[jerseygirl1]

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X2

 

[BebeLapinouBlanc]

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^^^

I swear by the sav-a-chick packets. I always use it after hatches and during heavy moltings *or anything that could be deemed stressful or more demanding on their little bodies*.

Hope your little babies start getting something in their system.

http://www.savacaf.com/html/products/?id=125

 

[1st_chicken]

Thanks everyone, for the advise. I'm sorry to say one more died, and now i have only two keets left.

But at least they are eating now.