4 day old chicks with ping pong size crops !

[ging3rhoffman]

This is my second little batch of chicks and i never noticed the ping pong size crops on them. There are a couple of chicks with ping pong size crops and it worries me a little. Is this normal?

 

[m2wandc]

Give them grit...their crop is full...

 

[m2wandc]

my chicks ate their shavings when I first put them in the brooder and their crops were huge, I gave them some grit and after a day or so (maybe the 2nd day) it was down to normal again.

You can see it buldging in this one pic

 

[gumpsgirl]

Do you have them on shavings? If so, remove the shavings. They shouldn't be on shavings for the 1st week. Put them on paper towels, until the can decipher what is food and what is shavings. That usually takes about a week.

If they are not on shavings it could be that they just gorged on their food. Remove the food for a couple of hours and be sure they have plenty of water to drink.

 

[ging3rhoffman]

Boy do i feel better. They are on paper towels only. I will add a little grit for them. I had heard that the starter chick food had grit in it but i will give them some grit anyway. Thanks so much.

 

[m2wandc]

If there is grit in the starter food it wasn't enough for my chicks...as soon as I added the extra bowl of straight grit to their brooder, the crop started to go down...and slowly over the next 24 hours or so, it went down until it was completely down...and I've kept grit in there with them ever since and have never seen the crop crop-up like that again...

my chicks were less then a week old when they got the grit...and some people said not to give grit until later, but I figured if they were with their mom, they would have been pecking at the ground by now and so grit they got and all was well!!!

I used carnary grit from the pet store...just bought a box for a couple of bucks...

 

[RAWR]

i would just give them grit