New Keets Dying

[rollinridge]

Hi All,
We're really stumped here. We received 30 keets from a hatchery on Thursday a.m. (shipped out Tuesday). All alive and kicking butt. DH takes each one dips its beak in the water (he had medicated water) prior to putting it down to make sure it drinks. (We have a horse tub, sand on the bottom with a heat lamp, thermometers on the floor for temp control.) Feed is medicated chick starter. Saturday a.m. when I got up 1 dead. Three hours later 4 more dead. DH thought it might be the water - so he switched out the water to strictly straight water (no meds). Saturday afternoon - 1 more dead. This am. 5 more dead. What is alive are noisy, running around, eating drinking pooping and then you look later and another on had bit the dust.
Our history - DH has raised/hatched everything from quail, pheasants (on a hunting preserve and at our house) right now we have pigeons (show and homer) & chickens. This is our first try at guineas. And this is for our neighbors!
Help!!!
(Reading an earlier post about the pedialyte - he just went out and switched out the water to pedialyte).
thanks

 

[Marlinchaser]

What were you medicating for? Was it medicine or booster(sortof like gatoraide for chicks). You can add a little sugar to thier water(as if guineas need HYPED up to invigorate them)

 

[Marlinchaser]

I forgot

 

[rollinridge]

I was wrong - it was vitamins. And we just had another one die. Really weird. They are running around - putting a couple of crickets in there they go after them like white on rice. Dh put a little bit of his pigeon seed in there - they eat that up. But we are not seeing them really eating their food. (They are running over top of it though). Granted their food isn't "turkey or game bird starter". (We'll get that tomorrow when Agway is open if any of them are still alive). But the chick starter says it's for everything else in the world (pheasants, quail) but guineas aren't listed on the bag.

 

[Marlinchaser]

Chick starter should be fine, many have been raised on just that, they just may not grow as quickly. The vitamin water should not hurt unless really concentrated(mixed 10 oz/gal vs. 1 oz/gal). I would stick with just the chick starter, and water maybe there is something in the pigieon seed that they cant handle?

 

[Aj1911]

pigeon seed is to hard to be ground up in the gizzard with out grit

they could be dying from not eating their other food as the seed cant really sustain them

or they could be getting impacted crops from eating to much seed

how big is the seed? is it the size of normal bird seed? if so impacted crops

if it hard? like cant break it up with your fingers hard? if so they cant digest it and are dying from not eating what they need to.

 

[Akane]

If the pigeon seed was added later after several died I'd lean toward either shipping stress and you should call the hatchery or they are eating too much sand. That would explain their not eating the starter. Also the sand would help grind up the seed so it wouldn't be an issue. The problem comes if they decide to go nuts eating lots of sand. That can cause crop problems and they won't be getting any nutrition. Sometimes when you first introduce chicks to grit or sand you have to only leave it in for a short time or they'll overeat on it. I also cover the brooder with paper towels for the first day or 2 when I have new chicks until they know their starter is food. That way they won't try to eat too many shavings.

 

[rollinridge]

Thanks for the responses. We've always used sand as a base with our chicks and never had a problem. The pigeon seed was a short-face pigeon mix made esp for pigeons with small beaks (i.e it's very tiny) and the amount that was put in was really negligible (maybe a tablespoon overall just to see if they would eat). But on the shipping stress thoughts - they didn't start dying until after they were here for 48 hours. (We picked them up Thurs am and they started dying Sat am). So I don't think the hatchery is going to take any responsibility. I'm going to go out and check on them again and go look for more crickets - at least that would be something they would catch in the wild....(and it's protein)

 

[Lollipop]

Quote:
Earlier this summer there was a lady on another site that experienced exactly the same thing. From all she said, she was doing everything right and even tried all the suggestions with no luck. Hers were chicks. She called the hatchery and found out the chicks had gotten cold while waiting for shipping. The chicks were replaced free of charge, along with an appology from the hatchery. May be the same in your case. Worth exploring........Pop