How do I help my baby chick?

[zoyalantsov]

Hi. About two days ago I was gifted a baby chick, I named her hamlet. I set up her little place in a box with newspaper, water and rice (we didn't have any feed), hamlet just layed down and slept. Few moments later she started drinking water and became more alert, chirping loudly and ate some of the rice. On the second day hamlet was doing really well, but she was a bit lethargic, she closed her eyes while standing up and huddled, in panic i did my research and found to feed her some egg yolk for the nutrients. Later that night i left hamlet with some scrambled eggs and water. The next morning she was wet, it seemed like she stepped on her water corner so my parents decided to let her get some sun outside. Later this day hamlet refused water and food, so I heat up a heating pad and she slept beside it for a bit (this is my first time handling a chick so I did not know that they slept like they were dead) I was really anxious and watched her breathing. After a few hamlet was dry and started drinking some sugar water and egg yolk, but it seemed like she pooped a lot too. When i took the heating pad to re-heat it, hamlet cried for a while but still drank her sugar water. She would not eat anything from the ground and only ate the rice from my hand (which was difficult because most of it stuck to her beak or fell so she failed to eat it, but occasionally she'd swallow one or two). I also took hamlet outside her box everyday for 15 minutes so she could run around my room, but today hamlet seemed weaker than usual so i let her hang out for only 5 minutes. Before bed she was chirping really loud, i thought that she was getting cold, so I put up warm water in a bottle and left it in her box (hamlet was a surprise gift so i had no access to heating lamps or bird feed), she hanged out closely to the bottle and fell asleep, while she was sleeping i put up some oatmeal in her food container that she could eat throughout the night. I just wanted to ask, is hamlet sick? what can i do to help her?

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

You need a heat lamp and it needs to be about 90 degrees in one corner of her box and cooler in the rest of her box. And she needs legit chick starter feed (crumbles) from a store ASAP

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

I’ll leave the dye stuff out of it but she is super young and needs to be warm. She needs one corner where she can get up to 90-95 degrees and she needs to be able to get away from the heat too if she gets too hot.

No more rice. Scrambled eggs until you can get to store to get chick starter crumbles.

If you are going to keep her eventually you’ll need a coop and 1-2 more chicks to keep her company.

 

[zoyalantsov]

Hello everyone, Hamlet passed today. I wanted to thank all of you who helped me care for her and wished her well throughout this journey even from far away, I think Hamlet knew that she was loved.

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

Thank you. It is 12 midnight where I am right now and all the stores are closed, is there a more accessible temporary alternative I can opt to?

Scrambled or boiled egg is probably the best alternative.

 

[Iluveggers]

I would maybe tell your aunt thank you and ask her if she can also get you a heat lamp or plate & some chick starter food so you can take care of her. Let her know she won’t be able to survive without either.

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

Hello there! Sorry about your chick. I would get her some chick vitamins at the feed store as well as medicated chick crumbles. The medicated food will get rid of coccidiosis if she has it, it will not harm her if she doesn’t.

 

[5 Points Wingfeather]

You have to find a way to keep her warm. (Depending on her age and how many feathers she has). Can you post a picture of her

 

[NatJ]

This is her right now, she is sleeping on her heating pad that i just re-heated. I do not know how old hamlet is or why she is dyed pink, my aunt got her as a present for me

Age: just a few days old.
Gender: probably male, because most dyed chicks seem to be male.
Why it is dyed: so it looks cute, and someone who knows nothing about chickens will buy it as a pet. (Good for the hatchery that sells the chicks, but bad for most of the chicks.)

I suggest you think about whether you are allowed to keep a chicken where you live, and especially whether you would be allowed to keep a rooster. If that would not be possible, start planning now for what to do when the chick grows up.

The dyeing is probably not harmful to the chick. Selling chicks to people who do not know how to care for chicks does harm some chicks. (I think your chick is one of the lucky ones, since it looks like you are quickly learning to provide what it needs.)

 

[cluckmecoop7]

It's very sad that your aunt bought one (dyed) chick as a gift for you.
I hope everything goes well. Thank you for being a kind person and giving this baby a chance!