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Post by tiffany on Nov 17, 2008 15:27:06 GMT 8
Hi,
not sure if you can help me, my guinea fowl hatched 15 out yesterday and after collecting them and her and putting her in a safe box, this morning we were down to 12 so I have let her go and have brought them inside, I have now lost another 2 and one is not looking so great, they have water and food and the heater is on 80 degrees as when it went up to 90 they were panting even though they could have moved under cover if they wanted too! Do you have any thoughts on this?
Tiffany
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on Nov 17, 2008 15:49:30 GMT 8
Tiffany, How big is your brooder? Eg Have you got the heat source on one side or in the middle with a reasonable amount of space around it for the keets to get away from the direct heat? What are you feeding them? They should be on Turkey Starter Crumbles, not Chick Starter Crumbles. Not that it would kill them but they wont develop properly. It sounds like your keets are doing the same thing that my sick little one did. Although he felt ice cold to touch, his legs were straight and neck arched back. Also breathing weird, kinda opening his mouth and sort of wheezily gasping. With my keet, because he was cold I had him directly under the heat until he warmed up, I kept gently dipping his beak into the water and made sure he drank. If they dont eat for a lil while it doesnt matter so much but if they dont drink thats the end of them. After a few hours he came good. But as you might have read in this thread, what ever was wrong with him reoccurred the other day and I couldnt save him this time. Sorry I cant be of more help, all I can really say is make sure that they are drinking. Being so young and now without mum they may not drink on their own because they werent with mum long enough for her to teach them. Keep us updated on what is happening.
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Post by tiffany on Nov 17, 2008 15:57:45 GMT 8
The others are drinking, and I have half the box covered so if they want to get out of the heat they can, they seem to be moving back and forwards, I am wondering if these ones were not long born after she took them for what I would have thought was a rather long walk, with half of them caught up on one side of the fence and half on the other howling their little heads off (thats how we found them) I know they would not have anything to drink as she took them in the opposite direction to water, she was nesting in a garden at the far side of the block, I have no idea how they even manage keep their numbers up in the wild. We have quite a few but never seem to be able to produce any vast numbers of them. But I do love them so.
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on Nov 17, 2008 16:03:59 GMT 8
Yes, I dont know how they manage to survive in the wild either. Guinea hens are useless mothers, I dont bother letting the guinea hens incubate my eggs. It would be more trouble than its worth. I use either broody hens or the incubator. Guinea hens just dont seem to have much of a mothering instinct do they. I love my guineas too Despite the noise hehe, most visitors hear the guineas going off and theyre like, what the h*ll is that?, How could you live with that racket? lol. But we're used to the noise and luckily our neighbours dont mind it either.
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