Lay down and die: stupidity or stubbornness?

[Susan Skylark]

My 2.5 week old quail chicks decided they were going to die because I turned off the heat lamp (they are in a 68 degree basement, fully feathered and there are six of them). They all huddled up in a heap and closed their eyes to the cold cruel world…did I mention I’ve done this just fine with the last 3 batches?! I thought they’d toughen up and get over it in a day or so, but they really are stubborn, so I turned on the light, literally flick of a button and they are magically running around chirping and happy (not long enough to warm anything up, one second and poof, magic!). But they all had sunken closed eyes, not conjunctivitis, no, they wanted their water bottle back! I took it away as they could empty it in two hours (and make a dreadful mess) and gave them the same chick peck waterer I’ve used on previous batches (showing them what to do). I won this one! They were so thirsty after striking I just tapped on it and they swarmed to the water (ha!). Now if only they’ll eat their pellets (other chicks eat pellets fine at 2 weeks) these buggers strew them around the pen waiting for ground feed. Urg!! Are they just dumb or incredibly spoiled? Yes this is written to be humorous, the little monsters are doing just fine! They need to go outside in 3 weeks or so, and the garage is right around 40 and dropping weekly, hopefully develop some perseverance by then!

As a side note, I’ve seen something similar in down cows (cows that can’t or won’t get up due to injury or low blood calcium (milk fever)). Once the problem is resolved some cows (especially the not so brilliant Holstein) just decide they can’t get up and won’t even try which means if they aren’t forced to their feet eventually it becomes a reality as their muscles atrophy and nerves become inflamed with pressure. It is a real psychological phenomenon, even in people (MASH had an interesting episode based on real cases of something similar). Mind over matter but how do you convince the mind if it has decided it doesn’t matter? In a cow you annoy her until she gets up in frustration and wow, she can stand, but people?

 

[Debbie292d]

That was hilarious!

It's very weird to me how 24 of the same gene chicks can be so different from the next batch of 24 chicks a week later. One group will be off heat in three weeks, and the next are still napping under it at six weeks.

It makes me wonder if perhaps the first group's hens got in on more Poultry Cell water or something than the second ones did. I only do that about twice a month, though, and only as a boost as they eat good feed. It has to be something!

Our heat lamps are black, so the lights are separate from it, and I just shut those off every night.