Silkie thread!

[emvickrey]

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Nope. That is either splash or grey with autosomal red.

See, I said I was no expert. lol It's pretty anyway.

 

[friedeggs]

Could someone tell me what color my silkie is? I have a roo and a hen that look like this.

Gray with heavy autosomal red​

 

[Nekhebet]

Are silkie chicks less intelligent than other chicks, or do I just have a special bird? I've noticed that my partridge chick peeps in distress all day long. I saw the water dish was empty, all the chicks ran to drink when I filled it, the coturnix jumping at the bottle as usual....and the silkie kept peeping. So I dunked it's beak, and it drank, then went back under the lamp peeping it's head off. My hubby says it mostly only eats when it sees the others pecking at stuff, and it's currently half the size of the cuckoo chick who hatched a day ahead of it. Hubby also says the crop looks like there's food in there. So is it just "extra special" and should I be worried? They are a little less than a week old.

 

[emvickrey]

Quote:
I have one that is a bit special. She grew so much slower than her hatch mates and half of her face is deformed. It looks like her sinus is gone and she is blind in that eye. That side is sunk in. She can see just fine out of the other eye and has adapted very well. She has filled out but is still smaller than the rest. I had to take her out of the pen with the rest because I was afraid she was gonna get hurt. At night they would all pile up and she would be on the bottom. I was afraid she would get squashed. She became the house chicken and I tried to re-introduce her to her flock but one in particular rejected her and tried to kill her. As long as she don't go in their pen they all get along fine outside roaming around. At night when the rest go to the pen, she waits for me to come and get her outside of the pen. I thought she was a boy because of the red comb but it turned out she is a she. The eggs she lays is proof. She doesn't appear to be slow in the head, just slow to grow and deformed in the face.

She is spoiled rotten and will throw a fit if I don't let her out of her cage when she wants out. When she sees us eating she is right there with the dogs waiting for us to toss a tidbit. She will race the dogs for the bits of food we toss at them. I should get a video of it. Tonight there was a dog on each side of her and since she is closer to the floor she beats the dogs to the bits as long as they are on her good side. The dogs haven't figured out to stay on her blind side. lol

 

[robin416]

Quote:
Yep, that non stop crying is stress. Move the food closer to the lamp, you might want to move the water closer also.

It might be having trouble with the crumbles and would benefit from a warm mash made from the crumbles.

 

[Nekhebet]

Ok, I'll try that in the morning. Up until this afternoon they didn't have "crumbles", they had powder. The coturnix and the serama seem to take their first few weeks well if I blend the chick starter up. I added some nonblended in a red pyrex lid earlier today. I'll def try to move everything closer to the lamp. I think I'd feel loads better if she was a little larger and managed to be quiet, as the little little babies are currently in my living room....

ETA: I've tried micro mealworms but I've only seen the cuckoo eat one once...my oldest chick in there snaps them all up, and the partridge doesn't seem too swift on her mental feet.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I have had 2 "dummy" chicks in the past couple of years that were similar in behavior and both died at about 1 week of age. First, they were both hatched with HUGE vaults which is probably part of the problem. Both of them tended to walk backwards from the beginning, but that did improve in a few days. Both seemed to not understand how to eat or drink, even with the other chicks leading the way. Both would drink when I dipped their beaks, but then didn't seem to have the ability to go to water on their own. I never saw either of them actually eating with the other chicks. Both tended to stand in a corner...but neither of them peeped loudly as though in distress. In fact, they rarely peeped at all.

This occurs in foals every now and then. When I foaled 30-40 babies a year I would generally get 1-2 that were "dummies" and we had to teach them to nurse, etc. Usually we had to tube feed colostrum to them for a few days until they "got it".

Can't tube feed chicks (or at least I can't) and I'm sure they die from starvation/dehydration. Very sad...hope your baby "gets it" soon.

Edited to add: Neither of these chicks were related in any way and did not come from the same parents, so I know there is no genetic correlation.

 

[Nekhebet]

Ok, I moved the food right under the lamp and provided both powdered crumbles and the regular chick starter. I think it eats..I've seen it pick a couple of times and I definitely saw it poop at least once after cleaning it's hind end...but still the peeping goes on. *sigh* I think I will just chalk this up to a really annoying and slightly stupid chick. I did give more mealworms after removing the oldest chick...the cuckoo chick snatched them all up, and partridge just sat in the corner.

I candled my current eggs and was a little disappointed to find two of three buff eggs clear. I really wanted at least two of those to be growing, since I feel really bad about the humidity issues last hatch.
That and there's no cuckoo eggs going, and not really any smaller auctions going for those colors. Maybe I should give up and see if Jenlynn (sp?) has any chicks?

 

[joe17]

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What age are the chicks? I wouldnt advise giving them mealworms at a young age.

 

[Tanichca]

I have 5 silkies at the moment, and i bought 24+silkie eggs just this morning for the bator.