My ups and downs so far with the chicks...

[aatx]

what is pasty butt/ my white and black crested chick 6 days old. has some stuff all over his butt. I whipped it off. his fur looks like it got wet and dried to him. not sure how to clean that. any ideas

There are lots of threads on pasty butt that will tell you lots more details, so do a search for the term.

But in the meantime, I consider pasty butt when they go to the bathroom and it ends up blocking the vent. It can end up blocking them up where they can't go to the bathroom and they will die. When I first got the chicks, I checked them twice a day, then moved to once a day, and now I am at once every day or two since everyone's been mostly clear. I've washed a bit off that was under the vent, but haven't found any blocking the vent lately.

To clean them, I would get the water running warm, then I would hold them in my hand with their bottom hanging off the edge of my hand. Let the warm water run over their bottom for about 30 seconds or so and then I would start rubbing the poop while still under the running water - normally just with my finger. It should start to break up and wipe off. I was able to do it pretty quickly and keep the chicks pretty dry so I just patted their butts a bit and stuck them back under the lamp. Some people will use a blow dryer a bit.

 

[bea bird]

thanks so much! I will do that! everyone is talking about the dust the chicks get every were. hope its not as bad as they say.

 

[aatx]

New video of the chicks at 16 days old.

 

[aatx]

thanks so much! I will do that! everyone is talking about the dust the chicks get every were. hope its not as bad as they say.

I haven't gotten to that point yet, so I don't know. I do have mine in a separate room that is closed off. At first I was only going to keep them inside for 1 week. Then it was 2. They are now 17 days old. And now, I don't know. It's so much easier to check on them when they are inside than if I had to go outside to the detached garage. I guess once the smell or dust hits, I'll have to really think harder on it.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

When treating chicks for "pasty" butt you better make sure that they don't have "White Bacillus Diarrhea" or Salmonella Pullorum Disease.
You can save a chick with Pullorum Disease but you can never "cure" an infected chicken.

Pullorum will come back to haunt you in the form of a high number of chicks dead in the shell, poor feed conversion, poor laying performance, and a high incidence of living or hatched chick mortality.

http://www.safe-poultry.com/PullorumDisease.asp

I don't know of anywhere now but in the past just one positive Pullorum reaction in a commercial flock of 10s of Thousands would result in a mandatory government kill off of the entire flock.

 

[hildar]

That is so sad that you lost so many. I got my chicks 2 days ago. One looked like it wouldn't make it, and I wasn't to happy it was my NN cockerel and I needed the cockerel. However yesterday and today the little guys is doing great. Today they are on shavings, and loving it, they started taking baths in the shavings. scratching in the shavings is like the most wonderful thing for them.

I still have one Delaware pullet that I am worried about. It is very vocal, luckily they sent me an extra one. But when chicks get vocal like that normally they don't make it. All of them seem to be strong and healthy, the smallest NN is the only NN that I worry about she is half the size of the other ones. But she is the fastest one when she is awake, she jumps around and runs from one end of the brooder to the other end. When it comes down to a chick pile, she is normally on top rather then the bottom. But normally they are all stretched out sleeping. The Delawares and buffs in their brooder are more of the kind to pile up.

Keeping a close eye on them for the first few days is usually a good thing. This way you can see who is changing their behaviors. When and if I see that, then I can worry. So far though all chicks seem to be happy and healthy. The only questionable one is the loud peeper. That one I am thinking wont make it.

 

[aatx]

Well, no deaths in over a week now, so that is good.

Last night I decided to add in a panel so I could expand their brooder from 4x4 to 4x6. 24 square foot for 17 3-week old bantam chicks is a good amount of space for them, I think.

I had to add in more shavings when I enlarged the pen, so that led to lots of digging and kicking the shaving everywhere! Their heat lamp is now on a timer where it comes on a few times a day for 30 minutes at a time. It comes on more at night and less in the afternoon and this seems to be keeping the temp more constant in the room (around 80 degrees everywhere.) They all flop into a pile (or a few piles) when they want to take a nap, but I haven't seen any huddling together like they were cold. When they are awake, they are spread out, so I think temps are fine.

From last night, Day 23. (Yes, that is the obsessed dog in the upper left.)

 

[petrel]

They look healthy and content to me. Is that a chick laying at the end of that roost?

 

[aatx]

They look healthy and content to me. Is that a chick laying at the end of that roost?

Thanks.

LOL, the still white blob back there? No, that's actually a little teddy bear laying over that I had in with them early on and since it was pooped on and will just go in the trash afterwards, I have just left it in there for them to play with and climb on. It does sort of look like a large chick laying down - makes me think of one of those meat birds.

 

[petrel]

You always manage to put something in there to throw me off. Last time it was a feather boa!