Please Advise! What to do about a dried out chick post hatch?

[mvktr2]

My 4th and apparently last chick was the first to pip. He was drying out & stuck to the egg so I helped him a little. He pushed out on his own after that. Seems fairly healthy. Problem is most of the feathers on his back look like someone moosed them to his body. He has that wet look even though he's dry. So what do I do? Is it appropriate to wash/rinse him in plain 95 degree water to get the gunk off then put him back in incubator to dry?

Your help is greatly appreciated,
Phillip

 

[vyshtia]

Yeah, I've had to do that before - just give a very gentle wash in very warm water, dry off as much as you can - then put in bator to dry the rest of the way

 

[mvktr2]

Thanks vyshtia, can someone else confirm while I'm going to get my bowl of water and towel?

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[Tuffoldhen]

He will fluff out on his own in a few days. I think people just get too impatient with how their chicks should look too quickly after hatching out.

 

[mstricer]

I didnt wash mine off but it also wasnt that bad, I was told it was from to much humidity, anyone else.

 

[Yvonne37894]

Mine got that way from high temp. Had to help it out of egg, and it looked wet when dry.
I cleaned it off with wet q-tip and dried it off with hair dryer.
I didn't put it back in hatcher, moved it to brooder.
I'm not saying that this is what you should do. Just that this is what I did.
3 weeks later and it is doing great.

Good luck with yours

 

[horsejody]

Wait a day. He will fluff out.

 

[mvktr2]

My little fellow was the first to pip, then 36+ hrs later he hadn't hatched, seemed to be less active so I intervened. I kept my humidity rather high, 70-80 compared to most here so it was him just drying out in the egg rather than too little humidity drying him out. I went ahead and bathed him as he looked just like he'd first come from the egg, no different only he was all dry. In this state I couldn't move him to the brooder so I chose to wash him. Did it with a shallow bowl of 99 degree water, gently rubbing his little skin to loosen the feathers, quickly dried him and returned to the incubator. He's fluffing up now so I'll be able to move him to the brooder in a few hours. Problem solved and he's doing fine.

Thanks,
Phillip

 

[magikchick]

I had two this happened to in this last hatch. One was cemented into the egg and took almost 40 minutes to get it out. He looked awful but is all fluffly now.

 

[Painted Spirit]

I was told that thier feathers contained stuff they needed to ingest to help thier immune systems. I lost several chicks out of my first batch that I had rinsed off to get them to fluff better... but my temps were a tad to low during incubation so I'm not sure what caused what in my mortality rates....