my lesson: feed my chicks earth worm(red wigglers)

[puch]

few days ago I asked for a help about the red sticky poop.
actually I threw a few red wigglers(worms) into the run, only that poor chick got it all. and then the red wiggler was so hard to digest and had sour crop and I treated her with the corid, still crop was like a big ballon, and then yogurt, still the crop was full as a ballon, I finally syranged her some water, held her 60 degrees and let the water out and gave her epsom salt water bath, the red sticky poop came out, now she is fine as normal, only two more day did not eat well, her feather look a little loose. hope she can catch up her weight.

 

[FrostRanger]

Do they have grit? If you feed anything besides chick starter, you absolutely must provide chick grit or that can happen. They NEED grit to be able to digest their food. Worms are perfectly fine for them to eat, provide her some grit if you haven't already and hopefully she'll feel better soon. (Of course keep doing what you're doing too)

 

[puch]

since I first got my chicks in late March. over nearly 3 months, I experienced 3 chicks was sick and saw died in my hand. I want to say: raising chicks for me is a bit depressed. every time chick died, I wanted to cry for several days. I am new to the raising chickens and put a lots time and effort. but some times I was so naive to kill the chicks.

 

[puch]

Do they have grit? If you feed anything besides chick starter, you absolutely must provide chick grit or that can happen. They NEED grit to be able to digest their food. Worms are perfectly fine for them to eat, provide her some grit if you haven't already and hopefully she'll feel better soon. (Of course keep doing what you're doing too)

thanks. I will buy some grit. thanks

 

[FrostRanger]

since I first got my chicks in late March. over nearly 3 months, I experienced 3 chicks was sick and saw died in my hand. I want to say: raising chicks for me is a bit depressed. every time chick died, I wanted to cry for several days. I am new to the raising chickens and put a lots time and effort. but some times I was so naive to kill the chicks.

Raising animals certainly isn't easy at times especially when starting out. You will make mistakes despite your best efforts and sometimes crud just happens. My advice is to grieve if you need to, learn from what happens and don't give up, you never reach a point where you know everything and losing animals is always hard but you get more experience and you learn ways to better keep them happy, healthy and safe. Of course don't be afraid to ask for help as we're happy to help as best we can here

 

[puch]

Raising animals certainly isn't easy at times especially when starting out. You will make mistakes despite your best efforts and sometimes crud just happens. My advice is to grieve if you need to, learn from what happens and don't give up, you never reach a point where you know everything and losing animals is always hard but you get more experience and you learn ways to better keep them happy, healthy and safe. Of course don't be afraid to ask for help as we're happy to help as best we can here

Thank you so much in tears!

 

[ColoradoChicken89]

Thank you so much in tears!

I know it's so hard! I lost one of my chicks really early, and it threw me into a whole tail spin. Though, like was stated above, it can be tricky (especially the young ones), and loss is kinda part of the package sadly... Especially with the very young and very old chickens. Don't beat yourself up too hard, but def mourn if you feel the need!

But yeah, I would say grit is vital if you want to feed anything other than chick starter. Grit is how chickens "chew" their food. They store a few small stones in their crop along with food, and the stones rolling around as they move about help break it down into smaller pieces. Chick starter crumbles dissolves in water so well though, hence why they don't need grit to help digest it. Anything that doesn't dissolve (like worms or seeds or anything really other than chick starter) will need a little grit for digestion. Depending their age will depend the size of grit too. If they are younger than 6 weeks old, they will want something really small (like poppy seed ish sizes). If they are older than that, but still growing, you'll want something a little bigger. Though, any grit about 1/2 a pinky nail size or larger is for full grown chickens.

Also, one trick I've kinda found that helps the chicks share things better, is to break them up into smaller pieces and hide tiny piles in a ton of little spots (not well hidden, just enough to keep them guessing). Kinda helps give some of the smaller/submissive chicks time to discover them and take a few bites before the larger/dominate chicks can come running over.