New to Peas - chick questions

[Koeyohte]

Hello,

So I will be new to peas in, hopefully, a few weeks! Met the owner of a feed store who also does a lot of animal rescue work who has a ton of baby peas and said she would give me some! I have 2 turkeys and have been considering a few peas for a year and I would like to hump on this.

I have read through many of the posts and threads here already and have just a few specific questions:


1.) Tylan powder - for the chicks, is it fine to give them the powder so young? Or do I need to wait til they reach a certain age. I read another post about preventing MG and as it seems peas are highly susceptible, I do NOT want this of course (have had poor experience with pheasants for the past 4 years :'( ). I wasn't certain on a set dosage, either. Anyone have any thoughts regarding this?

2.) Also, I will be putting cement all around the aviaries, to keep out coons, foxes, yotes, etc. I figure a few feet wide (from the pen and out) and a few inches thick or so. Does this sound like an idea? Lots have suggested burying wire and we have done this a few times... I live in FL and it's always rotted away (we used cheap chicken wire at first, we didn't know any better sadly). The aviaries are made of thick, hard "cloth wire" and won't be going anywhere.

3.) I realize that game birds need to be fed higher protein - my turkeys are on 23% I believe. Should peachicks be on something lower until they attain a month's age or so?

4.) I also read that they shouldn't be outside on grass much, until about 3 months or when they are fully feathered. This is still the case?

Anything else relatively specific or general that shouldn't be missed?

Thank you very much!

~Koey

 

[casportpony]

Regarding Tylan... I would *not* give any antibiotics unless they were showing symptoms like swollen sinuses and eyes, drainage, etc.

My peachicks get a 26.5% turkey crumble.

Both turkey poults and peachicks are susecptable to getting blackhead, so you should do some reasearch on that.

My must have peachick first aid kit has:

• 9.6% Corid - for coccidiosis, 2 teaspoons per gallon for 5-7 days.
• Metronidazole (Fish-Zole, Flagyl, Meditrich, etc.). Dose for treating blackhead is no less than 30mg/kg once a day for 5 days. Metronidazole will also treat clostridia according to my vet.
• 10% Baytril - For gram negative infections like E. coli and mycoplasma (MG and MS).
• Tube feeding tubes - sizes 10, 12, 18, 30.
• Tube feeding syringes - sizes 1 ml, 3ml, 35ml and 60ml.
• Kaytee Baby Bird food for tube feeding.
• Kitchen scale for weighing chicks.

I'd also suggest finding an avian vet.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Forgot to say...


-Kathy

 

[Koeyohte]

Thanks I appreciate your information and will write it all down and get to some more reading.

What is the Kaytee baby food for?

What can I do to prevent things (such as MG, etc) besides the obvious fresh, clean water and food and bedding, using straw so as to prevent spraddle leg, not letting peachicks outside into their enclosure until they are older and feathered, ets? Is there anything I can give them occassionally to prevent problems?

I used to, more frequently, put 2 tbs of ACV in my birds' water. And when it starts to get rainy and always wet out, they get Aureomycin in their feed (had necropsies done and it looked like possibly sinusitis sort of infections during that time. Lost 13 quail, 2 pheasants and some chickens.)

~Koey

 

[casportpony]

Thanks I appreciate your information and will write it all down and get to some more reading.

What is the Kaytee baby food for?

~Koey

For tube feeding. I weigh mine about once a week and if they stop gaining weight or lose weight, they get tubed. I have blackhead here, so I'm very paranoid, lol. Just added a couple more things to post #2

-Kathy

 

[Koeyohte]

Great, thanks! There is a vet an hr away from here who is supposedly renowned (Theresa LIghtfoot), but I went to her before for my baby pheasant and also asked her and gave all kinds of details about my favorite female who seemed like she had heart problems and this vet had no answers. Charged me $100 for literally saying "I don't know," and "it could have been a heart problem," but she hurried us iin and out and I was pretty miffed and asked all my questions anyway, but I'm skeptical of doctors anyway... I know a few people personally I trust more who have all kinds of birds so I'll have them for resources as well.

 

[casportpony]

Great, thanks! There is a vet an hr away from here who is supposedly renowned (Theresa LIghtfoot), but I went to her before for my baby pheasant and also asked her and gave all kinds of details about my favorite female who seemed like she had heart problems and this vet had no answers. Charged me $100 for literally saying "I don't know," and "it could have been a heart problem," but she hurried us iin and out and I was pretty miffed and asked all my questions anyway, but I'm skeptical of doctors anyway... I know a few people personally I trust more who have all kinds of birds so I'll have them for resources as well.

Wow, I'd expect better from her. Maybe she had a bad day?

-Kathy

 

[Koeyohte]

I don't know... but she was very uninformative, had nothing to suggest and seemed like she didn't know of any preventative measurements, almost gave my baby pheasant to another person to leave with, and it cost me $100 plus $20 to drive up there. Wasn't happy and I am sure she does better, but after that I'm not thrilled to use her as a reference.

 

[Trefoil]

Cement should work very well. Kathy is our resident illness person and she covered the medical.
Just a couple of points to consider. Straw isn't the best bedding because it rots so easily, if you have access to reasonable wood chips, rice hull, you might want to experiment using other stuff. I also wouldn't give any kind of antibiotic unless they are ill, it will cause you problems if they ever do need to be treated. The only thing you can do is try to keep them as healthy as you can, maybe investigate herbs. Also, and I hate to say it but if you have had serious health problem with pheasants &/or quail I wouldn't try peas until you have the problems solved. Peas are very susceptible to many of the same diseases and can die very quickly. I give my pea babies 28% medicated turkey starter (kent) or the 27% unmedicated (also kent). I also use vinegar in their water.

 

[casportpony]

I don't know... but she was very uninformative, had nothing to suggest and seemed like she didn't know of any preventative measurements, almost gave my baby pheasant to another person to leave with, and it cost me $100 plus $20 to drive up there. Wasn't happy and I am sure she does better, but after that I'm not thrilled to use her as a reference.

I started off with a vet that has a horrible bedside manner and took the advice from another vet that she works with and went to a different clinic, so maybe you could find someone else? This first one I saw was nasty, rude and wrong and a few things.

-Kathy