My week old silkie not doing so well?

[j.luetkemeyer]

I had some silkie eggs in my incubator and one hatched last Friday. It was doing great for first several days; however, this evening I noticed it wobbling around a little bit and sleeping a lot. Not near as active as earlier in the week. Any ideas? I put some sugar in the water to try and get its appetite up. Doesn't seem to be eating much.

 

[PurpleChicken]

j.luetkemeyer :

I had some silkie eggs in my incubator and one hatched last Friday. It was doing great for first several days; however, this evening I noticed it wobbling around a little bit and sleeping a lot. Not near as active as earlier in the week. Any ideas? I put some sugar in the water to try and get its appetite up. Doesn't seem to be eating much.

The first week for chicks can be tough. Are they on medicated feed?
Is there blood in the poop?

I like to give my newborns a bird vitamin/electrolyte mix in their water
for the first week. There are varied opinions on this but I've had good
results.

You can try feeding it yogurt by hand. Grind up some feed into a mash
and mix it with the yogurt.​

 

[antiquebuff]

Be sure to check for pasty butt also. This can be a major problem in chicks.
Good luck, you may try a little scrambled egg.

 

[j.luetkemeyer]

There were no problems with pasty butt or anything. I believe I got some eggs with bad genetics. There were 4 other eggs that had completely developed but did not hatch the one I'm discussing in this thread finally passed. Of those 5 there were another 6 that were developing up through 14 days. Those 6 died between day 14 and 18. Thanks for the info though.