What was replied about is correct about first time parents! BUT it can still happen again IF they're not good parents! What was your feeding schedule for the previous chick that died??? It is a VERY tiring process and I hope you've done your research before diving in. At the very beginning you need to feed yogurt to start the process, you get the all natural yogurt in the organic section in your grocery store. It have the bacteria they need to start the process since the parents can't pass it to them of course since they're not feeding. Don't feed it ice cold but don't feed it hot either, do NOT heat it or cook it or you'll kill off the bacteria. I usually put it in the syringe and place the syringe in a bowl of warm water to warm it up. Then I feed it to them directly, all they need is just a small amount. They don't eat a lot at this stage anyways. Wait an hour then start your hand feeding process by making the formula very thin, where it is mostly water content, measure your temperature! Then feed it to the chick, always make sure the crop sac is empty before you feed!!!!! Then set your alarm to go off every hour and repeat the process, make sure you have a incubator set up to keep the chick warm. I wouldn't suggest leaving the chick with the parents unless they're really keeping him warm and all. Repeat this process for the first 3 days and on the 4th day you can go every 2 hrs around the clock. Then 6th day every 3hrs, at 7th day he should be getting pretty big and accepting more formula and you can change the schedule to 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 11pm and you can skip the late night feeding. At 14 days old you can do 7am, 12pm, 7pm, 12am Of course during these changes, your formula amount will increase and thicken the formula a bit once it's past 7 days stage but still pretty watery. By 14 days your formula should be thicken a little more BUT not too thick. My schedule tend to change a little after 21 days of age so depending on how your chick is doing to change it.
