I'm new here.. Got some baby keets..

[PhilH]

Hi,

This post is probably in the wrong place but I wanted to say hi. I live in deep south Texas. I live on 5 acres surrounded by several hundred acres of orange groves & pasture land. Closest neighbor on our street is over a mile away..

We have a couple of horses & 3 dogs. We just decided to get some chickens & bought 5 Production Reds. We made a temporary chicken coop out of a 10 X 10 dog pen.. We put chicken wire around the bottom of the pen & a tarp on top.. We used one of our dog houses as a temp coop for the chicks. We put fresh hay in the dog house. For the first couple of days the chicks went to town. They ate little of the chick starter but ate the heck out of the bugs.. They were all over that pen.

The dogs went a little crazy so I placed poly wire about 6 inches from the bottom & hooked that up to our main fence charger. After a few shocks & yelps later the dogs left the pen alone..

It turns out that my wife's boss is a farmer.. His family has several hundred acres they live on & always have around a couple of hundred Guinea's.. He just had a big hatching ( is that a word) & offered us some for 3.00 dollars each.. So we picked up 10 yesterday.. Totally unprepared.. So they are in the bathtub in our master bath with a heat lamp & the AC vent turned off. One died this morning but the other 9 are just fine. Yesterday they were clumsy & fell over a bunch. Today when we went to remove the paper towels & replace everything they were hard to catch.. Dang at 3 days old they were fast.

Here are our little babies..



They were 2 days old here..

Thanks for looking..

Phil

 

[bradselig]

Welcome from another new member! I as well just picked up my first keets. Congrats! I can never get enough pictures of these guys. They just have such a "wild" look to them.

 

[PeepsCA]

Congrats! And

This is EXACTLY the right place, jump right in, join the fun

Just so you know, the keets will be out of that bathtub within a week, lol, they grow and feather out fast on Game Bird starter (which is what they should be eating). Make sure they are on bedding with good footing, they can slip on the tub surface and injure themselves. Don't use shavings for a few weeks, if you can avoid it. There's lots of info here to help you ready yourself for your new additions. And questions usually get answered pretty quick, lots of helpful people on here!

Something that I see in the pic that I feel is worth mentioning... that little guy with the bent foot in the pic... keep an eye on that, make sure it isn't a case of curled toes. If so you'll need to make a tape shoe for him, and get those toes straightened out ASAP or he'll be disabled for life. And not to keep harping on it, but the high protein starter feeds (Game Bird, Pheasant or Turkey starter feeds) help avoid issues like that.

Congrats again, and share more pics whenever you can!

 

[whitlockj85]

I wants some keets, but my wife is worried they will be too loud. Is this true?

 

[PhilH]

I wants some keets, but my wife is worried they will be too loud. Is this true?

They are not loud yet.. They are just happily chirping.. I cannot hear them in the bedroom yet.. I'm sure I will.. lol

 

[PhilH]

Congrats! And

This is EXACTLY the right place, jump right in, join the fun

Just so you know, the keets will be out of that bathtub within a week, lol, they grow and feather out fast on Game Bird starter (which is what they should be eating). Make sure they are on bedding with good footing, they can slip on the tub surface and injure themselves. Don't use shavings for a few weeks, if you can avoid it. There's lots of info here to help you ready yourself for your new additions. And questions usually get answered pretty quick, lots of helpful people on here!

Something that I see in the pic that I feel is worth mentioning... that little guy with the bent foot in the pic... keep an eye on that, make sure it isn't a case of curled toes. If so you'll need to make a tape shoe for him, and get those toes straightened out ASAP or he'll be disabled for life. And not to keep harping on it, but the high protein starter feeds (Game Bird, Pheasant or Turkey starter feeds) help avoid issues like that.

Congrats again, and share more pics whenever you can!

I think the one who died was the curled up foot one.. I saw that bad foot last night..

I have them on Purina's Start & Grow at the moment. In the morning I will go to TSC & get them some turkey starter.. Hopefully that will help them..

The only problem is that I have 5 Production Red Chicks in the bathtub also.. Will the higher protein food hurt them?

I brought the chicks in because we have some bad wheather right now & they are better inside than out..

We just got 2.5 inches of rain in the last hour & the tarp on their pen just collapsed a little while ago..

Phil

 

[PhilH]

I just checked & I do still have the curled up footed one.. Is there anything I can do to fix his foot?

Remember I am a newbie, so please explain it to me in easy to understand terms..

Thanks

Phil

 

[PeepsCA]

I can help with the curled foot/toes issue

Get yourself some black electrical tape... you'll need 2 pieces about an inch or so long. (An extra pair of hands is helpful too, the keets don't exactly hold still for this and will kick a lot, making this task next to impossible sometimes!). Press one piece to the ball on bottom of the keet's foot (careful not to get that little 4th toe on the back of it's leg on the tape, that shouldn't be taped) and then straighten out each of the 3 toes, so it's foot is in the position a normal keet foot/toes would be in while they are standing on that foot (toes spread out kind of wide, and evenly). Then press down on each toe gently to secure it in place to the tape. Now take your 2nd piece of tape and press it down on top of the foot, so it sticks to the bottom piece of tape between the toes. I usually work it a little with my thumbnail, making sure each toe is well secured, and in place between the 2 layers of tape. Now carefully trim the excess tape with scissors, to the shape of the foot (be careful that you don't cut the toenails off on accident, it will bleed, and hurt!).

What you should end up with is something resembling a little short/stubby scuba diving flipper (LOL). The keet will have a hard time walking at first, and you may have to pick it up and put it on it's feet a few times for a while, but they usually adapt pretty well, fairly quickly.



This pic shows a pair of flippers and my version of splayed leg hobbles (a thin strip of vetwrap) on this keet, all at the same time, but you shouldn't need all of that for your keet. I just wanted you to be able to see and understand what I mean by "flipper".

This black electrical tape flipper should stay on 2-3 days before it collects a bunch of brooder dust (food and poop particles) and will either come off on it's own, or easily come off when you remove it. At 3 days, if it is still on you may want to take it off, watch how the keet walks and if the foo/toes are still curling under, put another flipper on for a few more days. Usually one time is all that's needed tho.

Hope this helps, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! Good luck!

 

[Txcat]

Welcome Phil, n ty AGAIN Peeps The last baby that hatched yesterday has curled toes n I was just looking for anything on those! The tape thing looks great, baby napping soon to be in progress so he can get flippers ! I'll have to seperate him off though because I doubt he can keep up with his broody n siblings out in the bush. But, if Gabby doesnt behave I may have to keep that brood penned for a few days, anyway.


That is why this group is soo awesome, you always have someone (Peeps in this case) who's been there done that n figured it out !!!

 

[PhilH]

Thank you Peeps..

I will get this done ASAP.. Thank you for the easy explanation..

Phil