*please help* chicks scared of water and won’t eat chick feed

[sm28]

Hi, so about two and a half weeks ago I found baby chicks hiding in my yard. My cat outdoors was trying to hunt them down so I collected the ones I could find and returned them to their mother. But after a while after the mother hen had left, I found two baby chicks that were left behind! Afraid that my cat would kill them, I’ve been caring for the chicks. They’re at least 2 1/2 weeks old. I couldn’t find chick feed so I was feeding them dry cat food that I had soaked in water as well as semicooked oatmeal ( ocassionally some chopped up peas ). I’ve been trying for the past two weeks to get them to drink water by putting water in a shallow dish and poking their beaks in, but they become terrified by any foreign object or container that I put by them!! The only thing they’re not afraid of is my hand!!! I’ve just been hoping that they’ve been getting enough water through the soaked food I give them but I’m afraid they’ll become dehydrated in the future. Also, I only recently found a chick feed and grower as it’s hard to find where I live, but the chicks have no interest in the chick feed! They seem to have gotten used to the soaked dry cat food and oatmeal and won’t eat the feed! This worries me as it doesn’t seem like dry cat food and oatmeal will give them the right nutrients to develop properly. I’m lost about what to do, the stores around hardly have any supplies for taking care of chickens so if you have and diy or easy solutions they would greatly be appreciated!!! I can answer any questions about the chicks if it helps you to create a solution to my problems.

 

[DasChookunMan]

Hi,
First and foremost, and I'm sure you've worked this out by now, real life isn't like the cute youtube videos where cats will snuggle up to baby chickens. Cats, dogs, and larger birds will instinctively try to attack baby chicks. Be very mindful of what your pets and other wildlife are doing around baby chicks, you can't always count on the mother to protect them, and especially not if the mother's not so keen on a couple of the chicks.

Now, as for feeding them, pet stores usually have powder for rearing baby birds, a fine powder you can mix with water and, for flighted birds, feed them with a syringe.
I have found this just as useful for chickens at times when I needed to feed them a nutritious mix and hydrate them at the same time. If possible, this would be preferable to cat food and oatmeal, but you have to make do with what you've got. (Finely ground pellets can also work).

Usually weaning chicks off food and onto pellets/grains and foraging isn't too hard, but if you've been feeding these chickies for two weeks then they'll be pretty happy with cat food and need some strong convincing otherwise.

While chicks learn foraging from their mothers, they will pick it up naturally anyway, so what I'd suggest is holding off on the feed for a couple hours, then dipping their beaks in water. THey struggle and fight, but so long as they're not too traumatised by small plastic containers, their thirst should push them past that barrier. Nothing like some nice, cool, refreshing water on your beak.

I'm not sure how willing you are to restrict your cat's movement, but I would recommend putting the chicks back with the flock as much as you can. Some nice, fine pellets they can eat, small grains, and lettuce should be readily accessible to them. Once they start instinctively tearing into vegetables, they'll more or less be fine.

Finally, I would recommend trying to give them some watermelon, chooks love the flavor, texture, and how watery it is, it's great to hydrate them, and it gets them used to eating organics.

Rather than trying one or two things, then giving them the cat food, I'd suggest trying EVERYTHING I've suggested so far till they start eating something. You don't want them to think they can just eat cat food for the rest of their lives.

Hope this helps.

 

[sm28]

Hi,
First and foremost, and I'm sure you've worked this out by now, real life isn't like the cute youtube videos where cats will snuggle up to baby chickens. Cats, dogs, and larger birds will instinctively try to attack baby chicks. Be very mindful of what your pets and other wildlife are doing around baby chicks, you can't always count on the mother to protect them, and especially not if the mother's not so keen on a couple of the chicks.

Now, as for feeding them, pet stores usually have powder for rearing baby birds, a fine powder you can mix with water and, for flighted birds, feed them with a syringe.
I have found this just as useful for chickens at times when I needed to feed them a nutritious mix and hydrate them at the same time. If possible, this would be preferable to cat food and oatmeal, but you have to make do with what you've got. (Finely ground pellets can also work).

Usually weaning chicks off food and onto pellets/grains and foraging isn't too hard, but if you've been feeding these chickies for two weeks then they'll be pretty happy with cat food and need some strong convincing otherwise.

While chicks learn foraging from their mothers, they will pick it up naturally anyway, so what I'd suggest is holding off on the feed for a couple hours, then dipping their beaks in water. THey struggle and fight, but so long as they're not too traumatised by small plastic containers, their thirst should push them past that barrier. Nothing like some nice, cool, refreshing water on your beak.

I'm not sure how willing you are to restrict your cat's movement, but I would recommend putting the chicks back with the flock as much as you can. Some nice, fine pellets they can eat, small grains, and lettuce should be readily accessible to them. Once they start instinctively tearing into vegetables, they'll more or less be fine.

Finally, I would recommend trying to give them some watermelon, chooks love the flavor, texture, and how watery it is, it's great to hydrate them, and it gets them used to eating organics.

Rather than trying one or two things, then giving them the cat food, I'd suggest trying EVERYTHING I've suggested so far till they start eating something. You don't want them to think they can just eat cat food for the rest of their lives.

Hope this helps.

Thank you very much for the advice. Since I’m extremely new to all this I learned a lot. I’ve made sure to put the chicks where my cat can’t get to then, I’m pretty she even forgot I even had them! As for trying to put the chicks back with their flock, I have tried, but the chicks didn’t follow the others and tried to follow me instead (?). The only pet store around me is Petco and they told me they had nothing for chickens or chicks but I will try to look more to find that powder you mentioned.

 

[chickendreams24]

When starting newly hatched baby chicks on chick starter crumbles it's best to lay a little of the crumbles out on a clean flat white paper towel in their brooder. Their curiosity will generally get the best of them. With yours being older make sure they don't eat the paper towel.

You can also try moistening a bit of the chick starter until it's soft but not soupy. My birds love wet feed. This feed must be changed regularly as it can grow bacteria.

As for the water if you have any marbles or flattened glass stones(often used in Betta bowls) add those to their little dish of water just a few don't make it so they can't drink. Again their curiosity and the shiny stones will often attract them.

What are you using to keep them warm?

 

[sm28]

When starting newly hatched baby chicks on chick starter crumbles it's best to lay a little of the crumbles out on a clean flat white paper towel in their brooder. Their curiosity will generally get the best of them. With yours being older make sure they don't eat the paper towel.

You can also try moistening a bit of the chick starter until it's soft but not soupy. My birds love wet feed. This feed must be changed regularly as it can grow bacteria.

As for the water if you have any marbles or flattened glass stones(often used in Betta bowls) add those to their little dish of water just a few don't make it so they can't drink. Again their curiosity and the shiny stones will often attract them.

What are you using to keep them warm?

Thank you for the advice on water and feed To keep the chicks warm I’ve been putting a heating pad under the container I put them in a put it on medium or high depending on how cold it is. I check the temperature about every two hours to make sure it doesn’t get to hot or cold for them. I’ve also been using a ziplock bag filled with very warm but not hot water in their container for them to lean against/ lie down on.

 

[sroy]

When I have new chicks I grind up the chick starter to smaller size pieces and sprinkle it around on a white paper towel near their feed bowl. They go crazy picking and scratching at it.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

Can you post a picture ?

 

[sm28]

These are the best pictures I could get as they were pecking around when I was feeding them, from head to tail area they’re around 5-6 inches

Can you post a picture ?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

from what I am seeing they look healthy. Their poop looks healthy as well and they are drinking some because there is urates in the dropping. Are you leaving the water dish in w/ them 24/7 ? It might take them a min. to get used to how it looks but they will drink. You might try putting a clean shiny quarter in the water. They seem to love to peck at shiny things. If you give your general location maybe someone can direct you to some feed stores. No Tractor supply stores around you ? Plus what are your temps where you are ? Seems like checking on a heating pad every couple of hrs would be a pain.

 

[sm28]

View attachment 1280518 View attachment 1280520

These are the best pictures I could get as they were pecking around when I was feeding them, they’re around

Can you post a picture ?

from what I am seeing they look healthy. Their poop looks healthy as well and they are drinking some because there is urates in the dropping. Are you leaving the water dish in w/ them 24/7 ? It might take them a min. to get used to how it looks but they will drink. You might try putting a clean shiny quarter in the water. They seem to love to peck at shiny things. If you give your general location maybe someone can direct you to some feed stores. No Tractor supply stores around you ? Plus what are your temps where you are ? Seems like checking on a heating pad every couple of hrs would be a pain.

Glad to hear that the chicks look healthy I’m still working on getting them to drink water so I only put it in their container when I go to give them food and take it out after because they try to run over it and knock it over. I’ll try all the different methods being suggested to me though. I live in Hawaii so there are no tractor stores on my island. The closest feed store I know of is more than 30 miles away from me. The temperatures here have been in the 60’s to 70’s lately. I mostly turn the heating pad on during the night since it’s more cold and during the day I let the heating pad turn off after it’s auto shut off time.