Raising chicks is fun, these tiny fluffy birds are loving and easily excited, but, they can be quite tiring to you as their owner. If you want ways to make a baby chick sleep then read on.
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How to make a baby chick sleep:
Baby chicks usually decide to sleep when they are ready and when they are tired. But if your bird isn’t sleeping, or is having trouble sleeping, then you may have to intervene.
Here are some tips to get the baby chick to sleep:
In your hand:
If you want your baby chick to sleep on you while it is cuddled up to you then you can use this method.
- Start by wrapping your hand over the bird, do not cover your bird completely but your thumb should be covering the back of its neck. Rest your hand on the bird for a little while, your hand will act like a warm weighted blanket
- Next up, if the bird hasn’t fallen asleep by now you can rub your thumb over the birds head, do this slowly, you don’t have to do this many times.
- The bird should start to doze off and sleep quickly in this position.
On a surface:
If you want the bird to sleep in a specific location then you can do this
- Start by putting the bird on its back and resting the bird’s head in your hands.
- Use your other hand to gently massage the bird’s chest in circular motions.
- Once the bird is starting to doze off you can slowly move the hand that is supporting the bird’s head, keep massaging the bird’s chest as you do this
- Stop massaging once the bird has fallen asleep.
Under the mother:
If your baby birds have the mother with them, and you’re keeping all of the birds in a hen house with lights on then you can use this method.
- Start with the lights on and keep the chicks and hen close together
- Once the birds are together you can dim the lights, this will make the birds think that the sun is going down and it is turning to nighttime. You’ll notice the baby birds move closer to their mother at this time and settle in under her
- The next step would be to switch the lights completely off. This makes the birds think that it is nighttime and they will fall asleep under their mother soon after this.
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