Nervous 1st time Fluffy Butt Mama

[aclee]

So I have 40 chicks now and they are ranging in age from I would guess 4 days to about 6-7 days. I have them in a large box, and the lamp keeps them plenty warm, and they are eating and drinking like Champs. I have a couple questions though. Is Pasty Butt hard to catch? I seem to spend more time looking at the wrong end of these chicks. I'm so worried I'll miss it with so many running around. Second, I have them on newspaper, and they seem to be doing fine. Should I still bother at this point to switch them to paper towel? We were just going through so darned many of them! I had them on newspaper the first day home. I have pine shavings and pellets also available, so I guess at some point I would switch them to that? How do you know when it's ok?

Thanks!

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

I would check all the chick's bottoms to make sure they don't have pasty butt, with lots of chicks to check, you might want to get another large, temp box to put them in after you check, then transfer them all back over to the brooder once you've checked them all, just to make sure you don't miss anybody. I also would switch to the pine shavings, they're old enough now to tell the food from non-food and I've heard they are more likely to get spraddle leg on newspaper because its slippery. GOOD LUCK!

 

[newchicksnducks]

Doing a check of all the chicks is a good idea. My first and third groups of chicks were fine, but my second group ended up w/pasty butt. It is easier to check the chicks, then put in a bin till all chicks are checked, that way you don't miss someone If they do get it, I found it easiest to just clip the little feathers around their bottom, wash with warm water, then apply vaseline to the area...it helps keep stuff from sticking. It should only last a few days, if you get it at all. I only kept them on paper towel covered shavings for the first 2-3 days, then they were just on shavings....I'm sure yours are old enough now to be on shavings. I'm sure you'll be a good "mama"!

 

[aclee]

They all looked really good. Two of them had maybe a little stripe of poop from the vent down, but it looked like the poop was just a little wet and got on the feathers. My one brown "exotic" chick seemed a little more covered around his vent, so I wet a q-tip and clean it off till I was sure it wasn't covering the vent. He's easy to keep track of though, so I'll check him again later today. I moved them all into another box as suggested, and took that opportunity to clean out their brooder, change water, add food and lay down pine shavings (I did still put newspaper under the shaving to help with clean up though). I also sprinkled a little cracked corn in the pine shavings since they seem to enjoy scratching around looking for it. Hopefully that doesn't make them eat the pine shavings!

Thanks for the advice, these little guys (and gals!) are such a joy

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Sounds like you are doing great! Enjoy your birds!