New chick given to me, But I have no idea what it is. Please help!

[trinity]

if you name it i hope you name it somethign to do with being fat and cuddly lol.

 

[zigzag3337]

Right now it's name is "Cry Baby" because every time we walk away from it, it cries...I read somewhere that if I put a feather duster in the brooder with it, it will think momma was there. Believe it or not, that works!

 

[poultrykeeper08]

I have had my Cornish cross hen since june and she is doing fine . How long are they suposed to live for before their legs giv out and such . Mine is very active and runs around

 

[Smartie_Pants]

I have raised two cornish x's. One was a Tyson rescue who was three months old, one was a week old chick. Both lived to be approximatly 7 months old. Around six months you will see them begin to move slower and breathe hard. Then they will get to where they just lay around. Slowly their heart and lungs just give out. Its not fair to them to let them get like that, this coming from the queen of soft hearts. If I were you, I would either give it to someone who will butcher it when the time comes, or cut off your emotion ties with it so you can do it yourself. I would never want to have to raise another, because they don't understand why you are letting this happen to them. You can tell.

 

[Wifezilla]

If you want them to live longer, try keeping them off of corn and giving them more protein and fat than carbohydrates.

 

[gritsar]

Back in the day, my SO's mom diverted cornish x chicks from the commercial house to the backyard for her laying flock. They were fed as you would a laying hen and not the "hot" feed that is fed to the commercial birds.
Hers would live for a few years. Of course that was back before the poultry companies messed around so much with the chick's genes and feed.
Nowadays you can give a commercial bird a heart attack at 6 weeks old, just by moving too fast around the chicken house.

 

[Smartie_Pants]

I fed mine the same layer crumbles my hens get too. I think it had to do with the genes your birds have. Most I have seen that were being raised as pets made it to one year max.

 

[poultrykeeper08]

Mine eats layer pellets,lettuce and a little bread every now and then but i try and keep her away from that as i know its probrably not good for her

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I agree. Way too much tinkering with their genes going on. The chickens in the commercial houses can barely stand at 6 weeks old, but that's how the growers want them. They want them to just sit around and get heavy. When you see one at that age they usually have blisters on their breast from sitting on the ammonia soaked bedding. It's sad. Okay, off my soapbox now.
Zigzag, I wish you the best of luck with Crybaby.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Quote:
That's odd...they usually process the birds at 7 weeks of age...