newborn breathing heavily. normal or dangerous? help!

[cupman]

I had a newborn over night. It's chirping really loud and it's breathing heavily. It's also stumbling around. Is this normal newborn behavior or is my chick struggling? Humidity is up to 82%. Is it drowning? I know I'm supposed to keep the lid on but I wonder if I could lose the chick.

 

[NorthTexaschick]

Just leave it and be patient. Is it the first one to hatch? The behavior you describe sounds like it falls into the normal range. I've had babies I was concerned about because they seemed more agitated than the others or seemed to have greater difficulty in getting on their feet. If you take it out, there's nothing you can do for it anyway. As for the humidity - yikes! I'd crack the lid real quick and put it back on.

 

[NorthTexaschick]

Oh, and the heavy breathing - I had a chick in the last batch I incubated that breathed heavy for several days. I was expecting to lose it but it survived and thrived. So it could go either way. Hope its peeping will hurry along some brothers and sisters to hatch!

 

[cupman]

It is the first chick. I don't know what is happening but the humidity was like 77% over night. I heard it shoots up when chicks start being born, but it's shot up to 85% since the last post.

 

[flgardengirl]

They usually chirp loud, breath heavily, and stumble. They will stumble around then flop down and sleep for a while then back to stumbling and chirping then after a while and they are good and dried off they start getting the hang of it and become more coordinated. Do you have any plugs on your incubator you could open for a bit? You don't want to let too much humidity out at once and compromise the other eggs. I would just open the vents or plugs first and see if it comes down a little.