What is WITH this sick chick?

[ybmagpye]

ARRRRGGGHHH! GIVE ME STRENGTH!!!!

Ok, she's now apparently strong enough to more than sleep. So what is my brilliant biddy doing? Following her sisters around, pecking at them in attempt to get FOOD off/out of them! what! She is pecking her sleeping sister's back as I type. She walks across the food dish as if it's a door mat. Does she try to eat? I mean, her sister is right there eating, is dumb cluck taking a hint? NO! darn it!

I swear, later today I'm going to videotape this dumb cluck, post on Utube and put a link here. I swear this baby bird is going to drive me mental!

 

[ChooksChick]

Do this: Put baby on a black or dark cloth. Take a pinch of feed in your finger and thumb, and sprinkle it in front of chick.

Make clucking noises.

If chick goes mad looking at and pecking at feed, she can see fine and you'll be teaching her that it's food, just like Momma would. You've likely gotten her over some hump already and she's now where her clutch-mates were days ago.

If she ignores it, stab at it with your finger, as if your finger is a chick eating the feed. See if she follows suit.

You could get her baby parrot food and feed it to her with a syringe until she's much stronger- I had to do that with my Silver Laced Polish, who would surely not be here otherwise. She got stronger and finally started eating and being a little nuisance. I love her for that!!

 

[ybmagpye]

ChooksChick You ARE BRILLIANT!!!!

I used a chopstick to teach her sisters to eat a week ago - they pecked like crazy at anything I tapped, no clucking necessary.

For my poor wee ditz, I cut up an old sock and put her on it. You can see the results in this You Tube Video. Note: chick brat is eating off of - I kid you not - a silver spoon! Uh... it was the best thing I had available.

Check her out on YouTube:

OK, now here's the payoff! I was filming her pecking at her sister, and she PECKED AT FOOD! She wasn't persistant about it, but it happened several times. Mercy, is that chick slow.

On the bright side, a day ago she would only fall asleep when put back in the brooder, but just now, she is romping around pestering her siblings, which is mega-progress. Check her out on YouTube:

HURRAH! Ms. Thick has been awake, pestering her sisters and eating the odd crumble for about a half hour now. I almost feel as if I should give her a teddy & make her take a nap. Not to worry though - I'm keeping an eye on her but her days of hand feeding may be OVER! GO CHICK!

 

[Sweetfolly]

I had a mallard duckling who did the same thing to me.

He got an eye infection, and decided he'd forgotten how to feed himself - even once the eye infection was all cleared up. He went through all these weird phases - for awhile, he would only eat a yogurt/sugar mixture from my finger. Then, he refused to eat it off my finger and would only gulp it up if I smeared it on the wall (I actually have a video of that, I'll have to post it on youtube one of these days). Then, he decided he didn't like yogurt anymore.

There was one day that he gobbled up massive quantities of scrambled eggs - but wouldn't touch them the next day. It got to the point that he was less than one-third the size of his brother.

Finally, I started feeding him chopped spinach in his water, and what seemed like HUNDREDS of wax worms, meal worms, and earthworms everyday. I was worried that all those worms were WAY too much protein, but he thrived on them and sort of caught up to his brother - he'll always be a bit small, but he's molting into his beautiful nuptial plumage right now.

Oh - and he did eventually decide that he'd remembered how to eat his food again. Little stinker.

It sounds like your little chick will figure things out and manage to catch up too - don't let her drive you completely bonkers just yet.

 

[yellowchickensmomma]

I'm so proud of your little one.. Sometimes they are like kids. Don't listen to a thing you tell them.

 

[ChooksChick]

Hoooooray!!!

Just keep an eye on her and look to see if her right chest is larger at all- you want to make sure she's filling her crop.

I swear by the baby parrot food, as it's suh concentrated nutrition that just a tad can make up for a lot of NOT eating...it's saved many a baby in my house...but I'm nuts and hatch gazillions of birds!

I'm happy for you!!

 

[kysilkies]

We had same issue with our last hatchling...I spent 3 days hand feeding it...What we found that pepped her up the most was a mixture of egg white, molasses and a little water and OMG did she love it!!!!!!...Now this one is so attached to me, until we bought her some roommates I couldn't leave the room without never-ending chirping for my return...My wife figured out the solution, she couldn't sleep from the noise so she took our wedding picture off of the wall and put it next to the cage, worked like a charm!...When I woke up the next morning and saw it on the table, I thought I was a bad boy again LOL

 

[ybmagpye]

Quote:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! I never would have thought of using a photo, but that makes perfect sense! : D

By the way, chookschick, I'm keeping a close eye on my brat chick, and she is eatting now and pestering her sisters. Might not need it for the brat, but will keep the idea in mind if I ever face this sort of thing again.

I was thinking (a rare event, I know, but I was thinking as she races around pecking at her sisters (between mouthfuls of food) how weird would it be if she ended up being the alpha chick! Might a young Napoleanna in the making.

 

[ChooksChick]

My little Polish, Ziggy, became the pest for a while, but due to the blinding crest she isn't top of the heap any more. It was funny, though- like, "Hey, what are you doing? I wanna play!!" Zooooom, LEAP, zip, zoom!!

She terrorized everyone else for a bit. She did drop back down again in energy, and I fed her a while again, then she was fine! She liked my dog for a snuggle buddy- he kept her warm, I guess.

 

[ybmagpye]

OMG, Ziggy is adorable! Love that little afro she has going on there, it's hip I tell you, hip!