Help! What to do?

[CluelessChickJ]

I'm not a farmer, not someone who raises chickens for a living, nada. I'm a country girl in the Caribbean and there's always wild chickens that run around without any help from humans. Recently in the last several months two dogs have been killing them out in my neighborhood. I've raised a cockerel from a chick to an almost full grown boy but now my cousin has given me a baby chick again.

It was half starved, tummy/back visibly sunken in and barely moving so I force fed it some feed and it sprung back to life within a few hours. I've had it for maybe four days now and it's gained a bit of weight but still looks really small, I would say it's maybe about a week or two old if that much. It's eaten a couple earth worms from this colony I have in my back yard, ate them like the best thing it's ever eaten. This morning it seemed a bit lethargic, not really moving much and mostly laying down in my hand when picked up and didn't react the same to the worms. It's chirping loudly and drinking lots of water, it's pecking but not too sure it's eating. It's nodding off a lot seems to be loosing balance as well.

Is there something wrong or is this typical recovering from starvation chick behavior?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

What kind of food are you feeding it?

 

[CluelessChickJ]

What kind of food are you feeding it?

My dad bought a bag of feed for me. It's hard and like tiny like very small rocks when dry but when wet it get's mushy. Not sure of the name but the clerk recommended it for young chickens that weren't layers.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

My dad bought a bag of feed for me. It's hard and like tiny like very small rocks when dry but when wet it get's mushy. Not sure of the name but the clerk recommended it for young chickens that weren't layers.

Ok, just making sure it wasn't layer feed (it's bad for chicks). Maybe @casportpony can help?

 

[azygous]

If this chick was from a feral flock, and the mother hen had rejected it before your cousin found it, likely it has genetic defects that cause it not to be able to process the nutrients in its food.

This can cause them to lose strength over time, and they eventually die. It's not anything you did or are doing. Some chicks just don't have the equipment necessary for survival.

You can try a few other things before giving up. Sugar water might revive it enough so it will try to eat again. Minced boiled egg might be something it can digest that can give it some strength. The objective is to give it strength so it will try to eat.

 

[CluelessChickJ]

If this chick was from a feral flock, and the mother hen had rejected it before your cousin found it, likely it has genetic defects that cause it not to be able to process the nutrients in its food.

This can cause them to lose strength over time, and they eventually die. It's not anything you did or are doing. Some chicks just don't have the equipment necessary for survival.

You can try a few other things before giving up. Sugar water might revive it enough so it will try to eat again. Minced boiled egg might be something it can digest that can give it some strength. The objective is to give it strength so it will try to eat.

It died this morning but thanks for your advice.