Turkey chick hatched out blind

Misfits Farm 92

Free Ranging
5 Years
Dec 18, 2018
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Southern Ohio
These eggs were originally being incubated by one of my turkey hens, but a raccoon snatched her off the nest. It took a few days for me to find the eggs and put in them in an incubator with some peafowl eggs that my mom is trying to hatch. Now, two peachicks and one turkey chick have hatched. Since their hatch dates have aligned so closely, I wanted to keep them all together in the same brooder until they were old enough to go outside. I am aware that this blind turkey chick may not survive, but it seems active and healthy enough to have a chance. The problem is, my mom won't let me put it with her precious peachicks until I prove that it's blindness isn't contagious. I pointed out that they hatched in the same incubator, but she wouldn't listen. She made me put the turkey chick back into the incubator, which is why I don't have pictures of it. I'm going to wait to open the incubator again for a while, but when the other pipped egg finishes hatching I'll take some pictures of the blind chick.
 
It's eyes are completely grey with seemingly no pupils. When I had it out, I set it on the couch and waved my hands in front of it to see if it would react. It did not react until I touched it.
That's sad. It's gonna need a lot of extra care to find the food and water. Poults generally need to see other's eating the feed to know what, and where to eat.

Whether it's you showing them, other poults, or chicks, or their mother. They learn and don't automatically have the instinct to start pecking at stuff like a chick will do.
 
That's sad. It's gonna need a lot of extra care to find the food and water. Poults generally need to see other's eating the feed to know what, and where to eat.

Whether it's you showing them, other poults, or chicks, or their mother. They learn and don't automatically have the instinct to start pecking at stuff like a chick will do.
Yeah. I'm going to provide as much extra care as I can, but if it can't learn to eat and drink with my help then I think I'll have to cull it before it starves to death.
 

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