Is there a way to test a chicken's vision?

[Jayden Owens]

I have 3 silkie chickens that were born in April, when one of them was a few weeks old I noticed his eye was bigger than the other. Nothing came of it though and no symptoms of any possible disease showed and he has grown to be a happy healthy chicken.

He's a very nice rooster as far as roostere can go. At first he was a typical aggressive rooster where would run at you at first sight. But then he slowly became nicer and now only grabs your pants and thrashes his head a little before giving up and letting you move along, he also "scratches" but they are so gentle it's more like he's petting you. And this only happens 1 out of 10 times you walk near him.

He still battles his aggression and has his grouchy days, but what sets him off the most is when we wear baggy loose pants. The flappy of the loose cloth makes him run at you and does his best to put up a fight (as I said above). He also has a small history of our other two (now just one) roosters picking on him and chasing him around, but they have been slowly getting along even though there's still an occasion pecking.

I've recently suspect he might have some partial blindess. Which explains why he is still agressive when you where baggy clothes. The sight of movement might trigger his need to fight to defend himself since he was bullied by the other roosters for a short time. I also notice that when he pecks at pieces of food on the ground, he looks more with one side of his head, same with looking up at us when we stand in front of him.

What I am wondering if there is some sort of at home test we can do to see if he might have some blindness or not, or would I need to take him to the vet to figure that out?

 

[coach723]

You can use a small flashlight to see if the pupil reacts to light at all. But beyond that it's mostly observation. If he doesn't see things coming from that side, some observation should indicate that.
Lots of animals don't like flapping cloth or other moving things. I would imagine it might look like a hawk or owl maybe to a chicken, they alert on most large birds flying over.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I also notice that when he pecks at pieces of food on the ground, he looks more with one side of his head, same with looking up at us when we stand in front of him.

An interesting fact about chicken vision: Chickens are near-sighted in their right eye, which helps them see food on the ground and identify flockmates. (Or identify you standing in front of him.) Chickens are far-sighted in their left eye, which especially helps them spot birds of prey flying overhead. If you observe him using his right eye to see things close up,and turning his head to use his left eye to see things further away, his vision is probably OK.