Brand new chicken owner- diarrhea issue HELP!

[mlploeger]

Hello there We are brand new to raising chickens and just bought our first baby chicks a few days ago. I am guessing they are about a week old but could be wrong. They are Black Australorps. Everything's been going great until this morning I noticed some foul smelling diarrhea that at least one of them has. Not sure if this is normal or if I need to do something special. I changed out their water and bedding.

 

[TLWR]

That looks like a normal cecal poop. If that one chick doing it every poop or just once every 10+ poops or so?

 

[azygous]

I concur. That is perfectly normal cecal poop. Get used to it. The bigger the chicks get, the more evil smelling and overpowering it will get. Cecals are a curse yet a normal feature of chicken poop.

 

[mlploeger]

Thank you!! Yes it was just cecal poop. I have zero chicken wisdom, obviously

 

[Chickenmanjim7]

I was worried about that my first chickens as well don't worry. It's all part of the learning.

 

[Cornbanessa]

I am a new chick mama as well. I noticed the same thing with my girls... I have a pair that's just under 3 weeks and another pair just under 4 weeks. I have them on unmedicated starter feed. I am a homemaker so I am able to check on them every hour or so and change their water frequently. I also started adding a little splash of ACV to the water per others posters suggestions. But every so often my girls have diarrhea... and I mean WOW does it smell! I had no idea such a small chick could produce something that foul smelling. But reading this I'm assuming that it's normal cecal poop? I don't know what that is but I'm assuming it's normal? It's like a reddish brown color and smells awful. It seems to not happen all the time but I notice it at least once a day from one of my 4 girls. The only treats they are getting right now is some shelled raw sunflower seeds. Is this normal?

 

[Chickenmanjim7]

Yup sounds like cecal poop. It just gets smellier with age