Single baby chick

[CashewVulture]

I hatched some eggs, and only 1 chick actually developed and hatched. This chick hatched yesterday at 8:00pm.
It stayed in the incubator the whole night and I took it out this morning. The chick has tried to eat and drink a little bit when I took it out from the heat plate but other than that, it isn’t super active. Mostly just sleeping under the plate. Should I be worried? Or is it just still resting from hatch? It’s been almost 24 hours since it hatched. It can stand and walk and preen but it seems as though it won’t do anything unless I decide to take it out from under the plate and place food in front of it. It will often fall asleep while eating.

I am going to get other chick friends soon but I can’t right this moment.
I am playing chick sounds in the background until then.

 

[fldiver97]

Encourage the chick to eat and drink, peck with your finger at the chick crumbles. Baby chicks will run around for a bit and then just plop, fall asleep. It should show interest in food and be active at least intermittently. Do you have a plush animal to put in the brooder for company until you can get chicks to join her/him?

 

[CashewVulture]

Encourage the chick to eat and drink, peck with your finger at the chick crumbles.

This works, chick pecks and eats and drinks a little.

Baby chicks will run around for a bit and then just plop, fall asleep.

Yeah, it did that all morning in the incubator while I was preparing the brooder. It stopped after I put it under the heat plate.

It should show interest in food and be active at least intermittently.

It’s interested in food/water for short periods of time. Maybe 5 minutes at a time then it wants to sleep again.

Do you have a plush animal to put in the brooder for company until you can get chicks to join her/him?

I do. It’s under the heat plate.

I also want to mention that it doesn’t peep that much. There are no distress peeps. If I tap my fingers it’ll start making happy peeps but doesn’t follow my hand. It also makes calm peeps while eating.

 

[kattabelly]

It’s interested in food/water for short periods of time. Maybe 5 minutes at a time then it wants to sleep again.

This sounds pretty normal for a chick that's less than 48 hours old. They sleep a lot at first, and run through the whole sleep>poo>eat>repeat cycle very quickly. I wouldn't worry too much at this stage, so long as it is eating and drinking and otherwise seems healthy.

It definitely needs a couple of friends as soon as you're able to get some, though.