Pheasant chicks dropping like flies!! Help!!

[JJMR794]

Quote:
2 TO 5 DAYS OF AGE IS WHEN THE CHICKS START RUNNING OUT OF YOLK AND DIEING IF NOT EATING... ITS COMMON TO HAVE LOSSES AT THIS STAGE FROM THIS VERY THING. THERE'S INVARIABLY A BIRD OR 3 THAT JUST ARENT THE BRIGHTEST BULBS ON THE TREE AND DONT SEEM TO "LEARN TO EAT", THO THERE MAY BE OTHER FACTORS SUCH AS BROODER TEMP AND FEED ISSUES

 

[glscottjr]

Sorry for all the losses. This is kinda making me nervous as I have 36 pheasant eggs due to hatch in a few days.

 

[birdbrain5]

Quote:
yikes this makes me nervous too, i was going to order some eggs as soon as i know i have a spot to put these guys once they hatch and whatnot, but if they drop like flies and are real difficult to keep alive i may hold off...

 

[JD]

I have raised some babies that are now a year old. I read somewhere here not to give the the medicated chick starter. Could that be it?

 

[kartking22]

Quote:
kcravey, You need to check the temperature in your chick enclosure. The temp should be 99.5 degrees at the chicks head height. Don't place the heat lamp in the middle of the enclosure either. Put it in a corner to allow the chicks to get away from the heat and cool off if they get too hot. Your description of bundling is actually called piling where the chicks are actually too cold and pile together to get warm. The weaker chicks that can't get out of the pile are the ones that actually get trampled to death. Too warm under the heat light is actually better if the chicks have enough room to get away from the heat if they need to.
AND NEVER EVER use wood shavings or sawdust. The chicks eat this and can't digest it. I suggest long straw or hay. Chicks can digest this but NOT WOOD!!!!!
Also chicks will eat thier own poo. Dead chick. Put your waterer and feeder on a frame with 1/4" square openings to allow the poo to fall through and they are not able to get at it. Chicks normally poo after either drinking or eating. This usually solves this problem.

 

[wpalmisano]

I am wondering what you are feeding them? Is it chick starter with medication? Sometime back I lost a brood because I was giving them medicated feed. After about 12-14 days they began overdosing and dropping dead. I happened to mention it down at the feed store and sure enough, I used gamebird starter mash, and it stopped. Blue Seal.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

This may be too late to be of any help but I always have a digital thermometer with a probe inside the brooder box.I lay the probe on the floor of the box directly under the light and adjust height so it stays about 90 degrees,knowing 2"s higher the temp will be a little more About 12 hours before the chicks come out of the bator I set the brooder box up,plug in the 30 watt light buld with a hood, put paper towels on the bottom at least 2 thick and fill a quail style waterer with luke warm water and set it about 6" away from the heat light. I always try to set some quail eggs to hatch the day before or at the same time,as those little carnivors never miss a meal,and are great at locating the waterer on their own,kinda gives the pheasants a teacher. We save plastic butter tubs and I cut them so it's just a small bowl with maybe 1/2" side all around it,and I sprinkle crumbles on the floor under or close to the heat lite. Quail seems to learn on their own pretty fast,and the pheasants follow them around,,but I wouldn't advise putting new hatch pheasants in with new hatch chukars,,chukars are a lot more wild and will run to a corner away from you,and will trample anything,kinda like a stampede,,and last year I lost a few pheasants because of the chukars wild behavior.

 

[loulou4243]

NO! they cannot have any shavings when their young. their is one type of laying they can have when their young, which is like a string. The laying is hard to find in places. they will eat the shavings and it will imediatly stop them from eating. And they CANNOT be around another type of chicken, not even another type of chickens poo or pee. The other chickens poo will kill them. and they need wild bird game food. and their tempature needs to be at a perfect degrees. good luck!
P.S. once they eat a small shaving that isn't food, THEIR DONE!v

 

[loulou4243]

hen you get your pheasants, be sure there are no shavings, they will imediately die if they eat it. Make sure their tempature is at a perfect degrees. and they cannot be around ano ther type of chicken at all. the other chickens poo and pee will kill them all. GOOD LUCK!

 

[Tony K T]

I use shavings for bedding 100% of the time and I lose a few but overall not many loses.Cedar shavings are a no no!The problem I have is their water gets too hot even if I have it the furthest I can get from the heat source.This is just for the 1st week,after the first week the brooder temp drops to 90 and the water is cooler,not cold but cooler.After the 2nd week the water is problem at all.
In N.H.,Tony.