Newborn chicks crawling around?

[Bzrzad3]

Now this isn't too much of an emergency, but it sparked my never ending fear of more spraddle legged babies!

Sadly, I don't have any photos at the moment, but here is my "problem" at first glance. We have recently hatched 3 hampshire reds and 2 sizzle crosses- about 9-18 hours (when I post this).

I noticed that one of the hampshires tends to crawl around- almost with a tiny bit of spraddle leg. She holds a normal standing stance for a few seconds before flopping back down to sleep and snuggle into my hand...
Is it just a normal newborn behavior? I know they tend to sleep alot in the first day, but are they exhausted and/or need to build up their leg muscles?

 

[chuckachucka]

This sounds within the range of normal. Some chicks seem to bounce around on two feet as soon as their fluff is dried and some just flop about for the first 24 hours. As long as they CAN move normally, ie they will stand on their feet or 'elbows' and walk even for a couple of seconds before lying down again, there usually isn't a problem. If they aren't more mobile by the end of the second day I would be concerned.

You could also put a bit of sugar or electrolytes in their water to give an energy boost.