Chickies Day Two

Day Two: Still on paper towels. Temps a little low in the photo because I had just opened up the top to add a new layer of paper towels and to bring fresh, warm water. My experience shows that cold water and temps too cool contribute to pasty butt. I start pasty butt watch on day 3 or 4 as that is when they actually start having some real food in their guts. At this age, they get stuck in the feeders meant for chicks, so I open feed and also put some around on the towels so that shy ones that don't want to compete around the central feeder will also get fed. In a day or two, they will start doubling their food intake and it'll be time to put out the real feeders. I'll stop sprinkling food around, too, as they will start scratching and producing enough of a mess. Right now a new layer of paper towels is added 2 -3 times a day as their chickie poo is not very moist. Tomorrow they will get completely cleaned out, and pine shavings will go down, but with paper towels on 2/3s of it. They are getting less freaked out over hands dropping out of the sky.

A post shared by Karla Upton (@kmom246) on Mar 3, 2017 at 6:22am PST

They are already starting to get their tiny wing feathers!