Newbie, just lost a chick (long with questions)

[ilovechickens]

I just got my chicks yesterday, first off

I lost one to my own fault, it went under the water dish and when I went down to check on them the water dish was tilted and I picked it up and it was squished. I just came home and I lost a Salmon Faverolles, plus I have one that is really small and weak which I separated and It is likely going to die. Both of them were very tiny, bantam size compared to the other ones. It is hard, but if you do everything right and they die, that I guess is just chicken life

 

[Rotnguns]

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"20 - 50%" is a really high mortality rate, IMO. Should be less than 5% for good, healthy chicks, even with turkeys, barring some catastrophe.

 

[Tala]

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That fact makes me think you might have it a little TOO hot. Do you have a thermometer in with them?

 

[Anniegirl]

No thermometer, maybe I'll get one though. They seem to spend about equal time on either side of the cage. In the afternoon when it is warmer in the room, they definitely get away from the heat lamp. But they often sleep on the heat lamp side, too. It was nighttime when Shirley got squashed and that's when it cools down quite a bit in the room. She was sort of in the middle of the cage though.

Right now all three are in different spots in the cage, so I'm not sure that they are cold or warm. Coco keeps flexing her wings and jumping up to try to fly, very exciting! I probably should put a dowel in there for her to roost on soon.

Thanks for all of the information and support. I hope Coco, Gertie and Flo make it.

 

[lisahaschickens]

oh and and I agree that 20-50% is pretty high. I'm not saying that it's normal to lose that many... I actually have no clue what is normal because I am only raising chickens for the first time. I was just noting what it said in the reading because that was what I had in my head when I got the chicks, so I was mentally prepared from day 1 to lose some. I actually expected to lose a LOT of them, and when I only lost the two, I was actually really happy.

I'm just saying that my reading prepared me for the fact that some chicks just don't live... and sometimes it can be a high percentage of them. So, when I woke up the first morning and found one dead, it didn't hit me that hard. Sure, I was sad for the little guy, but I was mentally prepared and I just thought, "oh well, that's nature." The others looked healthy, so I didn't worry. I see so many posts on here from first-timers like me that aren't at all prepared for this to happen and they beat themselves up over it - "what did I do wrong?" "I am a terrible chick mother," "are they all going to die?" People feel so terribly and I think that can be avoided if you go into this with reasonable expectations... that's all