HELP please. New to raising chicks, and something has gone wrong. :(

[vtchickenlvr]

Your set up sounds very similar to mine. I have raised 5 batches of chicks in a large barrel-type white plastic tub. When they are brand new, I put chicken wire over the tub with the lite resting on top. I find that a heat lamp is too warm - even in my drafty cool Vt. laundry room. If I use the heat lamp, the temp. seems fine, but the chicks will try to move away from it. Instead, I find that a 150 watt bulb works well. The chicks should sleep in a loose cluster ( usually near the light bulb) Also, I have raised a gosling in w/ my chicks. This was in my larger brooder (2' by 4') outside in the big coop. The chicks were 6 weeks, but the gosling was 1 day old. He still lives with the chickens and he is 4 yrs old!

 

[kstaven]

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If those chicks have been vaccinated you really shouldn't be feeding them medicated feed.

As others have said, the thermometer needs to be in the tub and not beside it.

 

[Katy]

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And ducklings cannot eat medicated starter, if your feed if medicated (which I believe you already said it was) then it cant be fed to the ducklings.

If the "medication" in the feed is amprol/amprolium it is ok for ducklings.

 

[Katy]

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If those chicks have been vaccinated you really shouldn't be feeding them medicated feed.

As others have said, the thermometer needs to be in the tub and not beside it.

Depends on what they were vaccinated for. If it was Mareks the medicated feed is fine. If it was Coccidiosis vaccine I do think it's recommended not to feed them feed with amprol in it because they cancel each other out.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
And ducklings cannot eat medicated starter, if your feed if medicated (which I believe you already said it was) then it cant be fed to the ducklings.

If the "medication" in the feed is amprol/amprolium it is ok for ducklings.

The medicated in my chick feed is amprol, thats what I was feeding my newly hatched ducklings because of advice given to me by a member on this forum. It just killed half of my ducklings 4 days after they hatched so no, I would not feed ducklings medicated starter.

 

[Katy]

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If the "medication" in the feed is amprol/amprolium it is ok for ducklings.

The medicated in my chick feed is amprol, thats what I was feeding my newly hatched ducklings because of advice given to me by a member on this forum. It just killed half of my ducklings 4 days after they hatched so no, I would not feed ducklings medicated starter.

It's what I feed my call ducklings and have for the last 7 or 8 years since I started raising them and haven't ever had an issue with it.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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The medicated in my chick feed is amprol, thats what I was feeding my newly hatched ducklings because of advice given to me by a member on this forum. It just killed half of my ducklings 4 days after they hatched so no, I would not feed ducklings medicated starter.

It's what I feed my call ducklings and have for the last 7 or 8 years since I started raising them and haven't ever had an issue with it.

I guess everyone is different, maybe Canadian and American feeds are different?

 

[Katy]

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It's what I feed my call ducklings and have for the last 7 or 8 years since I started raising them and haven't ever had an issue with it.

I guess everyone is different, maybe Canadian and American feeds are different?

I would think amprol would be the same no matter where it's from. It's certainly everyone's choice how to raise their ducklings....I just know they are suseptable to coccidiosis just like chicks are and it's what was recommended to me to use by a person who's been raising ducks for many, many years when I first got mine.

I honestly wouldn't raise mine on anything else and have never had any problems feeding it.

Why do you think that is what caused your ducklings to die?

 

[StormyMoon]

I never gave my ducks medicated feed, and even stopped buying it all together even for my chickens. But for this next batch now that the ducks have their own yard I will be buying medicated feed for the chicks. I was told medicated feed would kill ducks. They have done really well and look very beautiful. I think if she has been feeding the ducks this long though maybe it isn't an issue cause I don't know about all ducks but my Pekin and Goose Pig out of crumble. They eat it in big mouth fulls. They eat a lot more than chickens or chicks do IMO. I was told that's why medicated feed affects them the way it does cause of the amount they consume.

I could be wrong? Some times its better to be safe than sorry.