First time chicken owner, our 16 babies (barred rocks & australorps) will be one month old Tuesday, and we have one mopey chick but all the rest are perfectly healthy and growing like crazy. Today, my inlaws showed up with 6 newly hatched guineas and 3 turkeys of unknown age (up to a week?) as a surprise birthday present for me. Thanks! We had discussed getting some of those last year...and decided probably not...but, um, thanks! To make matters more frustrating, they dumped all of their presents in the pen with my chicks when I was inside - so much for quarantine - and the turkeys look half dead. In fact, mom-in-law kept saying one of them was dead, and furthermore, there had been another one that had died before they got them to me. JOY.
On the upside, because of Mopey-chick, all the chicks have been on Sulmet for the last 5 days and I have plenty for the new birds. Also, the new birds seem to have adopted Mopey as their mom. In the case of the guineas this is cute: 6 lil cotton ball size squeakers following around my runt, trying to get under her and eat food from her mouth. However, when the turkeys need mom time it is freaking hilarious because the are almost bigger than her. My dog barked and scared one and it lunged under Mopey - only its head and neck made it. Mopey was not amused.
The turkeys are so lethargic they make mopey look positively spastic, and we've thought she was almost in a coma for the last week. Worse, 2 of them don't seem to be able to breathe through their nose. When I dropper fed them water, they blew bubbles, so I watched them and saw when they slept they kept opening their mouths to breathe. One has some suspiciously orangey-brown poo, too close to bloody for my comfort. I don't think they have eaten a thing, not even the egg yolk super mix. Couldn't get any details from family about where they got them except the man "has anything you could want" or how long they had them. We're pretty sure they had them at least a day, but they didn't know if the chicks could drink, eat, or they needed heat, and they live in a tiny trailer where they chain smoke. The guineas, aside from ear-piercing squeaks on a fairly regular basis, seem frisky enough: interested in everything, eating, drinking, annoying the other birds, and pooping like crazy.
I am grateful for inlaws who think enough of us to remember things we say we want, go out of their way to get them, drive hours to bring them to us, but I wish I'd had the opportunity to be prepared for this - we don't even have a coop ready for our 16 babies!
On the upside, because of Mopey-chick, all the chicks have been on Sulmet for the last 5 days and I have plenty for the new birds. Also, the new birds seem to have adopted Mopey as their mom. In the case of the guineas this is cute: 6 lil cotton ball size squeakers following around my runt, trying to get under her and eat food from her mouth. However, when the turkeys need mom time it is freaking hilarious because the are almost bigger than her. My dog barked and scared one and it lunged under Mopey - only its head and neck made it. Mopey was not amused.
The turkeys are so lethargic they make mopey look positively spastic, and we've thought she was almost in a coma for the last week. Worse, 2 of them don't seem to be able to breathe through their nose. When I dropper fed them water, they blew bubbles, so I watched them and saw when they slept they kept opening their mouths to breathe. One has some suspiciously orangey-brown poo, too close to bloody for my comfort. I don't think they have eaten a thing, not even the egg yolk super mix. Couldn't get any details from family about where they got them except the man "has anything you could want" or how long they had them. We're pretty sure they had them at least a day, but they didn't know if the chicks could drink, eat, or they needed heat, and they live in a tiny trailer where they chain smoke. The guineas, aside from ear-piercing squeaks on a fairly regular basis, seem frisky enough: interested in everything, eating, drinking, annoying the other birds, and pooping like crazy.
I am grateful for inlaws who think enough of us to remember things we say we want, go out of their way to get them, drive hours to bring them to us, but I wish I'd had the opportunity to be prepared for this - we don't even have a coop ready for our 16 babies!
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