Narcoleptic serama baby?

[muddipuppy]

I have a six day old serama that I hatched. She is being raised with 3 japanese bantams a few days older than her. every time you hold her, she almost instantly falls asleep. in the brooder we see her eat and drink, but mostly she is standing with her eyes closed and acting very sleepy. is this normal? she seems perfectly healthy otherwise.

 

[muddipuppy]

anyone?

 

[nutmeg1980]

I'm no expert, but based on the one hatch I've done, I'd say as long as she's eating and drinking she's probably fine. I hatched three chicks this summer. One was immediately perky almost all the time, the other was more like the one you describe. The third was sleepy all the time, and also never really caught on to the eating and drinking thing. The first two are 12 weeks old now and doing great. The third died in less than a week..... I hope that helps!

 

[muddipuppy]

Oh good. That brings me relief. Thanks.

 

[Akane]

She sounds a little weak. Maybe a hard hatch or just keeping up with the other slightly older and probably slightly bigger chicks. Make sure she's warm enough and getting food and water and she should become more active in a couple days. Newly hatched chicks will act narcoleptic to the point of falling asleep while standing and landing on their beaks. Very disturbing the first time you get one that's really extreme about it. Usually in a few days they remain more active and lay down first before sleeping but if they are slightly weaker for some reason it will continue for a couple days longer.

 

[muddipuppy]

I came home this afternoon and she had died. I think she was just very weak. She often did that falling asleep thing without lying down. Poor thing.

 

[mayapooh]

I'm sorry to hear your little one died. It's always hard...

 

[19hhbelgian]

I lost one of my Serama babies like that. He actually didn't act as tired as you described yours to be, he would eat/drink, and run around. BUT, he would fall asleep on his back with his feet straight up in the air - very strange. One day he was just "gone"

I just had another one hatch 2 days ago, and so far so good so

Sorry to hear you lost your baby

 

[Akane]

Sorry you lost the chick. Usually if they are just a little weak they do recover but there may have been something else wrong that couldn't be seen.

 

[SeramaLife]