New Member / love this site!

[drumstick diva]

When rains, it really pours - doesn't it? You sure seem to handle stress well.

Do the chicks have newspaper in the brooder ? That is too slippery for their feet. Put "splay foot," in the search box and you should get alot of info that way. People generally get good results from hobbling the feet with bandaids if they start soon enough.

 

[gander007]

 

[StickyChicky]

Well, we hobbled #5, fed it eggs, extra vit B and electrolytes, tried the cup / sling method... but it just kept declining and unfortunately died over the weekend However, #6 is doing great! We really thought it would be the other way around...

Funny thing is, we took them with us to our beach vacation so we could care for them - had them snuggled in a bandana around my neck for the trip... set up the small brooder in our rental... those who know this think we are nuts!!!

Anyway, we've named #6 "Sticky Parrot" - because he was so sticky coming out of the shell and he loves to sit on our shoulders. He's definitely imprinted on us, but I'd really rather he hang out with the other chicks, to make integration easier. Unfortunately, he's developed slower than the others, so we've waited a while to put him outside. When we did (he was just over a week old), his mom definitely rejected him, pecking at him. The other momma heard him cheeping loudly, walked right up to him and got right in his face - beak to beak with him, giving him a total stare down. She clucked at him like she accepted him, and tried to get him to join her, but he ran to me... grrr... So tonight we're attempting to get him to accept her. I waited till dark and slipped him under her - she didn't mind at all, and then I waited quite a while to make sure he didn't come back out. I waited longer outside and listened intently - didn't hear any loud cheeping, so am going to go back out in the early morning to see how it's going. Actually, I'm feeling a little anxious about it - so will check one more time before going to sleep!

 

[StickyChicky]

OH - and our dutch bantam went broody on us on this trip (we were only gone 4 days!!!). She found a spot where our animal helper didn't notice what she was up to... so now we are going to have chicks... in SEPEMBER... garrr.....!!!!!