This is going to turn out badly, isn't it? [Egg hatching]

[le_bwah]

Chicks can sometimes pip into a blood vessel. If it's only a smear of blood, not flowing or spreading, it should close up on its own. What you're seeing is the chick getting its first gulps of real air; don't worry if it takes a while between pip and zip, the baby is likely just resting.

I'd be careful checking on them too much (for your sanity), especially if you have to open the incubator to get a good look. If one has been pipped for over a day, or some still haven't pipped days after they're due, then it's okay to start wondering.

 

[Pandapop]

Thank you so much for your reply. These just started pipping today -- I checked everything last night before bed, so they haven't been pipping long. Now that I know they are though, I don't plan on opening the incubator again until they're out and dry.

 

[le_bwah]

Thank you so much for your reply. These just started pipping today -- I checked everything last night before bed, so they haven't been pipping long. Now that I know they are though, I don't plan on opening the incubator again until they're out and dry.

I bet you'll wake up tomorrow to at least one chick. Once they get zipping, it's not long before they're out and stumbling around. Listen for cute little peeps!

 

[Pandapop]

Another update...

The first pipping egg finished hatching, and the chick has been moved to join the others. The second baby died inside the egg. It wasn't moving and smelled pretty bad. I think at this point I've got all I can get out of those eggs, and 14 chicks is what I ended up with.

I'm having a serious issue with the waterer I'm using for my chicks, though. Twice now it has emptied itself entirely into the cage and soaked everything, chicks included. I woke up in the middle of the night the first time to babies wailing and immediately changed everything out and upped the heat a bit on the lamp. Second time, same thing, only I ended up tossing out the rubber shelf liner instead of cleaning it as it was so saturated with wet food, poop, etc. Right now I have paper towels on the bottom of the cage. I'm going out later today to get more shelf liner.

But what am I going to do about water? (it's a "silo" waterer made for parakeets) I've tried leaving just a little in the waterer so that if it were to spill again, it wouldn't be as bad, but I'm worried about them being without water at night while we're asleep.

What does everyone else use for water for their chicks? Button quails, I mean.

EDIT:

I'm using aspen shavings as bedding now (holy heck are they loving it) and a jar lid for water, filled with marbles. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner.

But now I've got a chick who is acting lethargic, and although isn't gaping, is lifting its head straight up and bodily shaking a little before it drops it back down. Doesn't like me touching it, so it's got enough fight to try and get away. I'm concerned that all of the water leaking onto them is causing a respiratory problem...

 

[Kiki]

Do you have a mayo jar lid?
Something like these:
#20634

This one is kinda dark but you can see the jar lid on the bottom with glass marble things in it:
#20725

 

[Pandapop]

What I found was actually the lid to a chinchilla dust container (I've got gerbils and russian dwarf hamsters), just dumped the remaining dust into a jar with a lid and using the plastic one for the chicks. Working out well so far, no one is wet. They've figured out that they need to get around the marbles for the water.

The chick that was displaying odd behavior is no longer doing it... it's walking around and eating just like the rest now. I'm not sure what that was about.

Unfortunately though, 10 out of 14 chicks had their little fluff feathers caked to their bodies from the food and water mixture when the waterer spilled out this last time. I had to carefully dip them all back into warm water (butt first, no heads) to get those feathers to unstick, and gently dried them with a hand towel as much as I could... so tiny. It looked bad. A few of them looked like newly hatched babies again!

I'm sure they're fed up with being wet. Third time now, poor guys...

 

[Woodey2]

I have put a drinking straw into the groove that the electrical cord for the egg turner goes into. I slide it down into #1 channel and add water if it needs to be added after lock down starts.

 

[Pandapop]

Agh. Trying to wash their feathers did very little to help, they're still matted to their skin. I have no idea what to do about it. It doesn't seem to really bother them, but will it interfere with new feather growth? I mean their feathers are REALLY caked.

 

[Kiki]

Agh. Trying to wash their feathers did very little to help, they're still matted to their skin. I have no idea what to do about it. It doesn't seem to really bother them, but will it interfere with new feather growth? I mean their feathers are REALLY caked.

Can you post a photo...also did you use soap?

 

[Kiki]

I would not be getting newly hatched anything wet.