The chicks nineteenth day

They're getting rather ugly now, getting all their little feathers. Of course they're still adorable! But ugly-adorable instead of fluffy-adorable.

Evil old grannys

Statistics:

Date:20/06/11. Weight (average): 138.25grams. Beak-to-tail: 18cm. Eye off ground: 12.5cm. Beak off ground: 12cm. Body width: 5cm Length of legs: 6.5cm

The chicks thirteenth day

Got sick for a weekend there, well, a week, and kinda didn't weigh or measure the chicks.. oops. And now my motivation is gone! yay.

Anyway, they've been going good, getting huge!

They're almost ugly now... which is sad. but you know, they'll get pretty when they're bigger.

Statistics:

Date:15/06/11. Weight (average): 101grams. Beak-to-tail: 17cm. Eye off ground: 12.5cm. Beak off ground: 12cm. Body width: 5cm Length of legs: 6cm.

The chicks seventh day

One week on, and the chicks are going well.

 

 

Just after I cleaned the box

 

Today the heaviest is 67grams, and the lightest is 49grams. They've had an interesting day today, I cleaned out their box for them... Although it hasn't seemed to make much difference to the odour (although very faint, it still is there) it does look nicer, and obviously health-wise it's much better. For at least the first month the plan is to clean the box weekly.

 

Box layout

 

 

Statistics:

Date:08/06/11. Weight (average): 55.25grams. Beak-to-tail: 11cm. Eye off ground: 8.7cm. Beak off ground: 8cm. Body width: 3.5cm Length of legs: 5cm.

The chicks sixth day

So, day 6. I was out for most of it... But when I got back I was just chilling with my little darlings and I noticed one of them looked rather big compared to the rest. I picked her up and she felt big compared to the rest. I then weighed her, and shes 62grams! Huge! Yesterday the biggest was 53grams, so if that is her, then she's put on 9grams. She must be eating a lot. The smallest is now over 40grams (she's 46grams).

It's been quite cold here at night (my fingers are freezing as I write this!) but because of fire precautions we don't leave the heat lamp on at night. Normally in the daytime they have the heat lamp on and a light summer blanket over the box. About an hour before bed we put a thick, heavy blanket over the top of the light summer blanket to keep the warmth in, and then when we turn the light off we just leave a few small air holes and hopefully they are snug. So far they're all still alive, so it seems to be working okay.

I made them a little pen in the dining room out of books and boxes for the walls and newspaper on the floor and it was so much fun to see them run around all excitedly! They flap their little wings and kind of get a bit off the ground, but their feet stay touching it. I scattered some chick starter on the ground, put their heat lamp and water in there and made them some mash and they happily stayed in there for about half an hour (they were watched the whole time) until they started just sitting under the heat lamp so we put them back in the box.

Freedom! (Almost)

Statistics:

Date:07/06/11. Weight (average): 52.33grams. Beak-to-tail: 11cm. Eye off ground: 8.5cm. Beak off ground: 8cm. Body width: 3.5cm Length of legs: 5cm.

The chicks fifth day

They've put on a heap of weight today! The heaviest is 53grams! But little Ducky is still only 38grams, the others are all over 40grams...

And they're starting to grow little tails! They have tiny feathers sticking out of their little chicky-bums.

I let them out to run around the dining room today and it is really interesting to see how they react to each other.. One of them will wander away, following its eyes to some crumb (or dust) it can see, and then two or three others will run after it, and after they've inspected the crumb/dust they all run back to the big group.

Statistics:

Date:06/06/11. Weight (average): 45.75grams. Beak-to-tail: 11cm. Eye off ground: 8.5cm. Beak off ground: 7.5cm. Body width: 3cm. Length of legs: 4.3cm.

The chicks fourth day

So, day four.
Not much to report. One of them has a funny sticky looking wet stain on their neck, but I think it's just cause someone pooped on her =(

So they've actually lost weight today. None of them are up to 50grams yet, but we do have two 49gram ones. I'm assuming they're not gaining weight averagely because the little ones are picked on so they don't eat much and then use all their energy up and the bigger ones just eat and use most of their energy up picking on the little ones. Although we haven't had much of a problem with the pecking order or anything just yet.

*Squish*

Statistics:

Date:05/06/11. Weight (average): 43.16grams. Beak-to-tail: 10cm. Eye off ground: 8.5cm. Beak off ground: 7.5cm. Body width: 3cm. Length of legs: 4.3cm.

The chicks third day

The third day has been great for the little chickys, although friends came over and they may have been handled a bit too much for their liking.

 

Today they put on 0.42grams, so about half a gram. Which when you think about it, it isn't very much at all. Especially compared to the amount of food they go through. Though I think most of that ends up on the ground.

I would just like to point out that I measure the chicks with a ruler and just take a guess at the actual height and stuff, it's not 100% accurate.

They are weighed normally around 9pm, if I weigh them earlier I find for some reason their weight has gone down since the last weigh in.

"You talking to me?"

Statistics:

Date:04/06/11. Weight (average): 43.42grams. Beak-to-tail: 10cm. Eye off ground: 8.5cm. Beak off ground: 7.5cm. Body width: 3cm. Length of legs: 4.3cm.