- Jul 12, 2011
- 46
- 0
- 32
Not sure exactly what happened. There could be a number of factors, but I don't have enough knowledge to make conclusions.
1. The light made about 95 degree temperature, with lower temperature all around it in case they got too hot.
2. They were varying ages, one was a week old (he died 3 days ago, 6 days after puchase), another probably 2 or 3 weeks (he died today, 9 days after purchase), and the eldest (maybe 4 or 5 weeks) seems to be doing great.
3. They had fresh water.
4. The chick starter I formulated myself--it has 17% protein and is finely ground corn, wheat, roasted soybeans, and barley, all 100% organic, non-gmo.
5. The two that died just seemed to lose energy and stopped eating so much, eventually dying.
6. When I bought them a week ago they were started on regular medicated feed, most likely, so of course their feed was switched.
7. They had a fairly large area to run around in, about 2x4 feet. It was fairly clean with pine shaving bedding.
So what the heck happened? It's pretty upsetting that two of them died on me. I read that a lot of chick starter feeds (which aren't medicated) are simply regular rations that are finely ground so that the chicks can eat it. I did not include any calcium additive in the chick's feed, which is only for layers, so please don't assume right away it was the feed just because I made it myself, unless I obviously did it wrong.
And lastly... will the last chick do fine by himself, or do I need to get him a friend or two? He started peeping fairly loudly when his last friend disappeared... he may calm down though.
Thanks for the help in advance.
1. The light made about 95 degree temperature, with lower temperature all around it in case they got too hot.
2. They were varying ages, one was a week old (he died 3 days ago, 6 days after puchase), another probably 2 or 3 weeks (he died today, 9 days after purchase), and the eldest (maybe 4 or 5 weeks) seems to be doing great.
3. They had fresh water.
4. The chick starter I formulated myself--it has 17% protein and is finely ground corn, wheat, roasted soybeans, and barley, all 100% organic, non-gmo.
5. The two that died just seemed to lose energy and stopped eating so much, eventually dying.
6. When I bought them a week ago they were started on regular medicated feed, most likely, so of course their feed was switched.
7. They had a fairly large area to run around in, about 2x4 feet. It was fairly clean with pine shaving bedding.
So what the heck happened? It's pretty upsetting that two of them died on me. I read that a lot of chick starter feeds (which aren't medicated) are simply regular rations that are finely ground so that the chicks can eat it. I did not include any calcium additive in the chick's feed, which is only for layers, so please don't assume right away it was the feed just because I made it myself, unless I obviously did it wrong.
And lastly... will the last chick do fine by himself, or do I need to get him a friend or two? He started peeping fairly loudly when his last friend disappeared... he may calm down though.
Thanks for the help in advance.
