Skittish Guinea Keets

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I just got 6 gorgeous lavander and pearl guinea keets in a trade after I lost my whole dozen guinea eggs in my bator and they are so skittish I cannot get near them. These are no more than a week old, probably only a few days. They were being kept in a rabbit hutch with a heat light and there were easily 40 of them, and they were extremely wild to catch...

How can I tame them? I worry about releasing them on my farm to eat bugs in a few weeks if they are going to be completely wild like this. I don't need them to be completely tame pets (it would be nice but I highly doubt it will happen), but I need them catch-able in case anything ever comes up.

 

[reesepoultry]

You are gonna have to hold each one daily until they tame down.
If not they will always be skittish.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Thanks, I've been doing that. I'll keep at it.

 

[toredano]

Mine freak out when i get close to them to pick them up. If istay out of the run and feed em treats thru the wire they are ok with that.I am waiting for them to get a bit bigger to really mess with them.I just moved mine outside to a run and I do not want to stress them anymore than I have to right now.
Now my turkey baby doesnt run at all .. but i think its because he is rather ... uhmm..slow.

 

[txchickie]

All of our guineas are super skittish. We can't get within probably 5ft of the adults and our keets freak when I change out food/water.

One thing I have tried is collecting bugs at night and putting them in a jar. Next morning most are dead, some are alive, etc...but I put them in my hand and stick my hand in the guinea baby pen. They will come eat out of my hand and occasionally will sit close for a few minutes.

 

[Debbienmousey]

I've found that for the first couple of days (After hatching) the babies are very friendly. After they're about a week old they go into this skittish/freak out stage. This stage lasts until they're about 8-9 weeks old. At about 8 weeks old they'll come close to my hand, and they don't huddle in the corner when I move. I haven't handled my 10 week old keets much but still they're not very scared of me now.

We didn't even really handle our adults when they were keets and the adults trust us. They walk right in front of us (As close as the chickens) and we can even sneak in a pet if they are distracted by eating. Our adult guineas are definitely not scared of us, but they are definitely not tame either.

I believe your keets will probably calm down in a few weeks. Good luck

 

[chloebetsychicks]

We got our first poultry this spring. We found we could easily handle the RIRs and Aracaunas from day 1 when they were just over a week. We got 6 keets who were less than 1 week and we consistently tried to handle or "tame" them the same way. NO GO! They want no part of it but now they are about 9 weeks they are not petrified of us but come near for food and are highly trainable. They will not let us pick them up, though. I have read it going both ways but my feeling is they are wild birds and treat them accordingly. Good luck, I find ours incredibly charming to watch.

 

[gunnz23]

Thanks I just picked up 8 pearls and they too are very skittish. They are barely a week though so hopefully mine will chill out.

 

[PeepsCA]

There's just too much wild blood in keets... they are skittish by nature, even at a few hours old, before you even take them out of the incubator.

The best success I have had with raising calm/tame keets is in a brooder with calmer babies... like with Turkey poults or Silkie chicks that tame quickly and are attracted to your hands and shiny rings, and quickly learn to eat goodies from your fingers... the keets learn to do the same (they hate missing out on the goodies), but most of them never really enjoy being picked up or held. In order to end up with really calm/tame Guineas you have to spend a lot of time handling them, and giving them a lot of treats so they learn to trust you. Some never tame down tho, no matter what.