Sleep cycles of chicks??

[marthalazar]

Hi,

I just got 3 chicks from MPC today (2 Easter Eggers and one silver laced Polish) and they are eating, drinking and pooping up a storm. What I was wondering was about their sleeping. One will droop to the ground and sleep, but about 3 seconds later another one tumbles into it and wakes it up. Are these 3-7 second naps enough, or do they need longer stretches?

Right now they are in a hamster cage without a ton of room. I'm about to get a bigger cage, so maybe that will help reduce the foot traffic on the sleepy heads. Any thoughts???

 

[donnap1967]

Mine do that all the time. One is sleeping or sunning or eating and another comes along and jumps on their head and disturbs them.

They will take little naps that get disrupted but eventually, they will all get really tired and sleep for a nice long stretch all at the same time so don't worry. They'll get their rest eventually.

It's all part of life as a chick. (and as a mom come to think of it

)

 

[JennsPeeps]

Mine seemed to fall asleep at the weirdest times. Run run run fall over sleep wake up run run run.

 

[marthalazar]

Thanks for the notes! I'm such a worried new mom! Before I went to bed I thought that the little black EE was psycho. Every time the others would quiet down and try and sleep, it would start shrieking really loudly and then plow them over to wake them up.

I checked in on them a couple of times during the night to make sure the brooder temp was okay (much warmer at night in my office w/out the a/c on) and they were really quiet. Instead of being satisfied that the little ones were finally getting some sleep, I was convinced that they were at death's door from too much heat. I guess I'm the psycho one!

 

[donnap1967]

lol, it's all natural. You aren't psycho.

Just a worried new mom. I know we have all been there. Do you have a thermometer in the brooder? If so, then don't worry so much. If not, it is a good idea to put one in there as you don't want to overheat them.

I am sure they were just tuckered out and sleeping, so try not to worry too much and enjoy them. They grow insanely fast!

 

[JennsPeeps]

One thing nobody tells you about chicks is that they look dead when they're asleep.

 

[basicliving]

Quote:
I did the same thing when mine were babies. Poor things would finally get to sleep and I'd worry they were dead and wake them all up. I imagine they were really happy to get out to the coop so they could get some rest! Although I did wake them up by shining a flash light on them at 2AM for a couple of nights after they got out there......

Good luck with your new babies. Enjoy them. And try to get some sleep

Penny

 

[marthalazar]

OMG! They totally look dead when they are sleeping. Especially my little Polish one w/ the long neck all flopped over. Fortunately when they arrived they were very perky and lively, so I didn't freak out when they flopped over. If I had opened the box and seen floppy chicks it would have been a whole other story.

I think I'll be able to sleep tonight now that I know I won't have slow roasted chicken in the morning.