To adopt or not adopt? Guinea fowl with slipped tendon

[Weeg]

Question, someone on an FB group I'm part of just asked me if I would be willing to take in a Guinea Keet with a sever slipped tendon. Too old to be treated at this point, but the bird is very mobile, hops, eats and drinks. I know nothing about Guineas. I've never owned them, I've never researched them. Do you think it is a good idea for me to take in this keet? I would love to, but I don't want to get in over my head. Note, the owner would give me a buddy to go with the Guinea if I took the disabled one.
My current setup-
8x30 duck coop/run. Contains 7 ducks, 5 chickens. One of which is a drake and a rooster.
Bantam coop, 8x12 and holds birds are numerous sizes, I think I only have about 20ft extra and I've like to keep it with extra space.
Mini tractor- 5x8 I think and holds Doodle, and 3 other bantams.
And I'll be building a new tractor too. I think it will be an 8x10 hoop coop. I'll be putting two Polish, and an Olive Egger in that pen. Lots of extra room. I think I would put the keets in here.

Questions-
What do I need to know about raising Guineas?
Can the Guineas and chickens share the same food?
What do I feed them?
How much space per bird?
Can they live with chickens?
Would it not be wise to adopt a male Guinea to live with chickens?
Can you tell the gender of the keet in the pic below? Grey in the upper left hand corner.
Anything else I should know?

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[R2elk]

Read the thread Raising Guinea Fowl 101 and pay particular attention to posts by @PeepsCA .

If it was me, I would not take in a keet with a slipped tendon nor would I ask someone else to take on the burden. If it was mine, I would have culled it.

 

[Weeg]

Read the thread Raising Guinea Fowl 101 and pay particular attention to posts by @PeepsCA .

If it was me, I would not take in a keet with a slipped tendon nor would I ask someone else to take on the burden. If it was mine, I would have culled it.

Thanks for the link! Are the Guineas in the pic too young to tell gender? I'm assuming so.
I understand this point of view. Though I have seen multiple members on this page with perminent slipped tendon chicks that live a happy life. @Aunt Angus and @pipdzipdnreadytogo both have, or are nurturing chickens like this that are doing great. I'm less concerned about the slipped tendon than I am about my little knowledge of guineas. If my setup will work for them, and if taking in a special needs bird for my first Guinea is a good idea. If it was a chicken I wouldn't have a problem with adopting it, I just have no experience with Guineas.

 

[R2elk]

Thanks for the link! Are the Guineas in the pic too young to tell gender? I'm assuming so.
I understand this point of view. Though I have seen multiple members on this page with perminent slipped tendon chicks that live a happy life. @Aunt Angus and @pipdzipdnreadytogo both have, or are nurturing chickens like this that are doing great. I'm less concerned about the slipped tendon than I am about my little knowledge of guineas. If my setup will work for them, and if taking in a special needs bird for my first Guinea is a good idea. If it was a chicken I wouldn't have a problem with adopting it, I just have no experience with Guineas.

Guineas are not chickens and do not act like chickens. They are a flock bird and do best in large groups with other guineas. If imprinted by other poultry, they do not play well with them.

I brood and raise my guineas separately from my other poultry. I also house them separately. I went through the raising them with chickens and other poultry. I will not do so again.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yes, Guineas are very different from chickens. I had them for a long time as well. I imagine a Guinea would struggle a lot more with a slipped tendon than a chicken does. In my experience, Guineas do not like human contact at all. They're very wild and prefer to be running with their flock, or keeping an eye on things from a perch up high, something I wouldn't expect one with a slipped tendon to be able to do well. I imagine a Guinea unable to keep up with their kind would be very stressed all the time. It's different with chickens who can be tamed and learn to look to their humans for help and protection as my slipped tendon hen does. Guineas in general do not tame like chickens.

I agree wholeheartedly with not housing Guineas with chickens. Guinea behavior is very different than chicken behavior. Often when flocked with chickens, they treat those chickens like they would other Guineas. Chickens are not Guineas, however, and do not know how to react to being treated as one, thus leading to being bullied, plucked, beaten, and sometimes even killed by their Guinea flockmates who are just being normal Guineas. In fact, the slipped tendon keet may also suffer a similar fate due to not being able to move as easily as the other Guinea. On top of that, Polish are already prone to being bullied in flocks of just chickens and with their vaulted skulls would be even more vulnerable to falling victim to Guinea flockmates. It's just generally not a good idea to house them all together as you describe.

I also feel like my Guineas were happier in a larger group than just two. When I had decided to let them die off from old age and stop replacing them, they seemed more agitated when only a few of them were left compared to when there were 5+ of them running around. I would not want only a pair of Guineas if I were going to keep them again, personally.

Honestly, you could try, build them their own enclosure separate from the chickens and try to keep this little one safe and raise it up. But if it were me, if it were my keet, I would not want to put it through what I foresee as a lifetime of stress and being bullied even by its fellow Guineas.

 

[Weeg]

Thanks so much for the help everyone, I figured this was what I was going to hear. I just have so little knowledge of Guineas I figured I would ask encase I was wrong. I've decided against adopting the Guinea. I hope someone else with Guinea experience can either take it in, or make a decision for its best interest.
Thanks again for everyones help.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It was wise of you to do so! Mine were a gift after a predator attack because of their supposed 'watchdog' behavior, and I hadn't even really done any reading or anything beforehand, so it was a big learning curve for me to figure them out on the fly. I wouldn't recommend the same to anyone!

For the record, they're less watchdogs, more faulty burglar alarms that set off with any movement... and after that experience, no one is allowed to get me birds as gifts anymore.