Just making sure I have everything ready!

[allidew2]

Morning!!!

Just a few final questions.... I should be getting my new keets very soon and want to be sure I have everything ready. Brooder with wire in lid and heat lamp (start them at 95 degrees), waterer (start them with a sip or two of warm or room temp water), medicated 25-30% protein turkey or game bird starter (which I have yet to locate, so getting this week hopefully!!!), plenty of textured drawer liner and rug grip stuff for the bottom of brooder....... did I forget anything else? ??? I've tried to get as much info on here as I possibly could over the past couple months. Thank you for all the experienced ones who share here!!!

I do have a mealworm farm going, so is it okay to give very young keets a few worms for treats to get them used to being handled? I still have to locate some white millet for treats, also.

One question I wondered about.... do I need the grit and/or oyster shell this early or are these both for later on when I move them outside to the coop, or are these for when they are let into their fenced run before they can be free-ranged for part of the day (which is WAAAY down the road time-wise).

 

[PeepsCA]

Congrats on the new keets that are coming... what colors are you expecting?

A few things to add to your list... marbles or clean stones to put in the waterer to keep the keets from falling in and drowning (unless it's a quail waterer, and they can't get in it). A mirror to secure to the wall of the brooder, keets love mirrors Some poultry electrolytes with vitamins already in them are good to have on hand in case you end up with a keet that needs a little boost (or some pedialyte and plain poly-vi-sol).

I don't usually give keets treats until they are 10-14 days old... mostly because they can't really grind anything up yet, and you really want them filling up on their high protein starter feed, not too many treats while they are so little. You can try giving them the tiny meal worms, but I'd be sure to supply them with some chick grit too... and of course you want to make sure they don't fill up on the grit. (When I give grit I give it whenever I give them treats, and then after I see everybody getting their share of grit I take it out of the brooder and just sprinkle a little on top of their food).

Oyster shell is for when they are close to laying and breeding age, 3-4 months old.

Good luck, have fun and be sure to post some pics!

 

[allidew2]

Thanks, Peeps!!!

I had already FORGOTTEN that I did get the marbles for the waterer and a small mirror for the brooder!!!!

( I'm digging them out of the closet as soon as I'm off this 'puter! )

I did see the electrolytes at the farm supply and wondered about them then, but forgot to ask about those here! Thanks! While I'm there, I'll pick up some grit ..... or did I see somewhere that regular sand was okay to use??? I have plenty of bagged sand around.... regular sand, not the sandbox sand.

What colors will I get? I know that the supplier, who is about 15 minutes away from me, has pearl gray, white, royal purple, and lavendar. I'll be getting a mixture of 12 in the next week or so..... I'm excitedly waiting on the call to come get them!

And, I'll probably have SO many pictures to post on here that people will start saying "Uh, oh..... here she goes AGAIN!" LOL I will definitely be documenting EVERYTHING, since these are my first keets. I've been following on here for quite some time, so I HOOOOPE I'm gonna be a good mommy!!!

Thanks again!

 

[PeepsCA]

I used regular ol' sand/small gravel (from the edge of my gravel driveway, lol) for grit... the lil buggers loved it way too much. Once I put it in there they wouldn't stay out of it, they were eating it non-stop so I had to ration their grit time, lol.The chick grit that Tractor Supply and some feed stores carry works fine too. There's also bird grit in the avian section of most pet stores.

Congrats again, I'm excited for you

Sounds like you'll get a cute mix of keets! I'm looking fwd to pics!

 

[Davaroo]

Neat!