New Chicks = No Sleep?

[ChickyLove]

Is it always this way the first time a person starts off with baby chicks? I've been sitting here with their container by my bed, listening to them peep. They peep and then the guinea pigs start to warble, then the chickies peep more! I really do think they're setting eachother off, but the piggies need to be in my room so the cat doesn't scare the liver out of them and the chickies need to be in my room so my kid doesn't melt down. It really does all settle after a while, right? LOL!

 

[koakritters]

bury your head under your pillow and you can get some sleep.

i've got 10 in my room right now...

 

[gale65]

Maybe put some music on to drown it out? I've never had chicks in the house so I get plenty of sleep.

 

[tulilynx]

At night i put my chicks into a large cage i've got.inside is a fruit basket lined with a warm towel.in 5 minutes all the chicks snuggle into that basket,and they're all protected in the cage.try the basket thing,because once they're cosy,packed and in the dark,they'l go to sleep.

 

[edgroger]

Yup i agree with tulilynx suggestion. Once the chicks are warm and comfy enough and they are in the dark they will go to bed.

 

[punkgirrl]

What are you using for heat to keep them warm? I used a red colored light to keep them warm. In my experience it has calmed mine down in the past at night and kept them warm. I am not sure if they can see in the red light but mine would stop dead in there tracks when I would switch the lights at night.

 

[Anianna]

They can see the light of a red lamp, but it is much more calming. They may still be awake some at night with a red lamp, but they should be more settled.

At least you don't have keets (baby guinea fowl) in your room. The first two nights I had my keets in my room, one of them just screamed like a smoke alarm. I couldn't believe something so cute and little could reach those decibels!! She finally settled down, though, and they don't bother me much now a week later.

Would covering the guinea pig cage with a sheet help to darken their cage and maybe help them quiet down? Or you could splurge for an EcoGlow which, I believe, warms without light. If you ever intend to raise more chicks inside, I think it is a good investment.

 

[ChiknMama]

God bless you !! Hopefully everyone will settle down soon. We have ours in a large tote in the basement with a heat lamp. We check them often during the day, often when I go down they are spread out, sleeping on the heat lamp end of the brooder. They look like girls laying out getting a tan. We also got an old rabbit cage (the kind with the wire on top and plastic bottom) so we put them in there when we clean out the broooder and when they get a little older will bring them upstairs and outside in that for protection. Our 2 dogs (german shep/pomeranian) do not go in the basement and the gerbils are in their cage so everyone is seperated and safe...even from our 3 year old son.

 

[cmom]

I have eggs in my incubator right now and when they start to pip I sleep on the couch I have in the room where my incubator is. I am up and down constantly. Needless to say for 2 or 3 nights I don't get much sleep. When they hatch I put them in the brooder. I have a regular light in the box brooder and once in awhile a chick will start peeping. After a couple of days in the brooder box, I have a cage with a red lamp they go into with a wire bottom so their water and food stay cleaner. After a week in the cage I put the cage with the chicks into a brooder coop which also has a couple of red heat lamps. For the first couple of days I leave the door closed on the cage, then I open it and they have access to the coop. I keep the coop pop door closed for a few days as they are adjusting to the coop.

 

[Anianna]

Quote:
That's a nifty cage stack you have in that last pic. Did you build that or buy it?