im thinking about buying a chick or 2. i know someone who sells them from a day old. wht will i need to look after one? what should i house it in. any care sheets or anything?

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When they're small a cardboard box is as good as anything to house them, with a ceramic heat lamp hanging over it to keep them warm, and maybe a light during the daytime.

They need a temperature of 32-35°C for the first week, after that reduce the temp by a few degrees a week until it reaches room temp, by then they should be ready to go outdoors.

Put an inch or two of wood shavings, chopped straw, or hemp fibre in the bottom, but don't use hay as they get tangled up in it!

You'll need some chick crumb feed and a small waterer, from any good animal feed supplier.

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2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens

the 22 meat chicks i bought in back in January (now fast approaching table size)

did fine in an indoor bunny cage with a heat mat under one corner (on a stat of course!)

if you use lights, an indoor 2.49 desk lamp from asda would do the trick, or something like that.

they started to come off heat about 4 weeks old, and were living outdoors by about 8 weeks, albeit under cover.

i have 4 6 week old araucana chicks at the moment, in the same set up, indoor rabbit runs, but with no heat, and they are doing well on chick crumb / pellet and fresh water.

N

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when i had my chicks

whay=t i had was a like hut thing attached to a run i made in the dinning room and we just had a 40 watt bulb desk lamp above the hut whith a mesh hole where the lamp went and the run just had chick crumb and a water dish and a ball and in the hut there was newspaper and some shredded paper


and they both did fine

I used a ceramic because you can leave it on all night and it gives out no light, chicks need to sleep too!

__________________
2.3.0 Southern Painted Turtles
1.0.0 Florida Red Belly
2.1.1 Common Musks
1.0.0 Classic Cornsnake
0.0.2 GALS + infinite babies
0.1.0 Tibetan Spaniel
1.2.0 Brahma Chickens

use a red bulb at night if you have to use lights then i guess..

tbh, was just as easy for me to whack 'em on a heat mat lol

N

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When I had ducklings, I had them in an indoor rabbit hutch with a heat mat under one end. And always get more than one... I don't think they do well on their own