BroodyViolet
Chirping
Hi! I'm totally new to this forum and also to chick rearing. I bought my first 6 chicks a little over a week ago. The dude at the feed store told me one was a buff orpington, but after just a few days it was apparently that she isn't! My guess is that they are not yet 2 weeks old, and Emperor Peepatine is well over twice the weight of my next largest chicks, which are Easter Eggers. I have a New Hampshire Red and a Barred Rock as well, and they are all growing like normal layer hen chicks. My guess is that Peepatine is a Cornish X, but of course I'm not taking her back at this point. She's a sweet baby just like the rest of them, loves being held in warm hands and massaged, and will fall right to sleep in my lap. She doesn't know she's a mutant, so she gets to be the lucky broiler who lives like a pet laying hen for as long as she wants.
I'm only annoyed because I was banking on having the babies inside for 4 or 5 weeks while they grow and feather out, and I've already had to separate Peepatine from her sisters. My husband and I are designing and building their coop and run, which won't be finished for weeks. We had timed it to correspond with their pullet stage, and Peepatine is seemingly on a MUCH more accelerated track. It's also sad to hear her call to her sisters when she's lonely in her box, so I take turns with the others putting one in with her as her "nurse bird" so she has someone to cozy up with to go to sleep.
Of course, this would be much easier if this wasn't my first time with chicks, but here we are. I'm not sure how much to restrict her food so young, but she's already too heavy for her own little legs. I make her exercise a little more when I handle them each every day, and she won't have access to free feeding after bedtime until I get up in the morning. I don't want to underfeed a growing chick, but she is an eating and pooping MACHINE compared to the others. Any opinions on what a good amount of food to offer her per day is without underdoing it? Also, I want to switch her off of chick starter and onto other foods that aren't designed for faster gains. I'm willing to make her food separately if it has to be scrambled eggs or crickets or vegetables or whatever... I'm just such a noob I don't know what would be a more healthy, slower metabolizing diet to provide.
I'm not sure if I will be able to cull her if/when the time comes, but I'm open to doing it out of compassion if it gets to that. I've euthanized fish, amphibians, and reptiles out of compassion before, but would be my first time for taking a bird's life. Doing it for a baby I've raised seems unthinkable to me right now though.
I'm only annoyed because I was banking on having the babies inside for 4 or 5 weeks while they grow and feather out, and I've already had to separate Peepatine from her sisters. My husband and I are designing and building their coop and run, which won't be finished for weeks. We had timed it to correspond with their pullet stage, and Peepatine is seemingly on a MUCH more accelerated track. It's also sad to hear her call to her sisters when she's lonely in her box, so I take turns with the others putting one in with her as her "nurse bird" so she has someone to cozy up with to go to sleep.
Of course, this would be much easier if this wasn't my first time with chicks, but here we are. I'm not sure how much to restrict her food so young, but she's already too heavy for her own little legs. I make her exercise a little more when I handle them each every day, and she won't have access to free feeding after bedtime until I get up in the morning. I don't want to underfeed a growing chick, but she is an eating and pooping MACHINE compared to the others. Any opinions on what a good amount of food to offer her per day is without underdoing it? Also, I want to switch her off of chick starter and onto other foods that aren't designed for faster gains. I'm willing to make her food separately if it has to be scrambled eggs or crickets or vegetables or whatever... I'm just such a noob I don't know what would be a more healthy, slower metabolizing diet to provide.
I'm not sure if I will be able to cull her if/when the time comes, but I'm open to doing it out of compassion if it gets to that. I've euthanized fish, amphibians, and reptiles out of compassion before, but would be my first time for taking a bird's life. Doing it for a baby I've raised seems unthinkable to me right now though.
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