A growth on the side of my chicks chest?????

[TXmom]

No, it's not ground corn husks. I have Chicken Grit, which is ground granite the size of small gravel...and I think Chick Grit is the same thing, just ground even finer. When mine were little like yours I gave them grit for Parakeets or Cockatiels (I bought it at Walmart in the pet aisle). It looked like sand with some tiny little rocks in it.

I think if you're giving them raisins and broccoli, you need to get some grit.

 

[AmericanMade]

Quote:
Ohhh OK. They were cut up. Thank you!

 

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

I am not so sure about the popcorn or broccoli for such little ones - I didn't treat until they were about 2-3 weeks old. Maybe I was being too cautious.

Anyone else have an opinion on treating this early?

 

[AmericanMade]

4hooves&featheredfriends :

I am not so sure about the popcorn or broccoli for such little ones - I didn't treat until they were about 2-3 weeks old. Maybe I was being too cautious.

Anyone else have an opinion on treating this early?

Yeah let me know if I am doing something wrong! Please! Thanks!​

 

[threehorses]

Mistakes are ok - it's how we ALL learn! (Including me - so learn from my years and years of "oops" )

OK, first off, babies need to be on crumbles. Period. That should be the basis of their entire diet. Mediated with amprolium, no antibiotics. We'll talk about treats a little later.

If a person chooses to use an organic starter (or really even if they don't) they should also use a live-bacteria "probiotic". Organic starters have this in them to replace the amprolium, but live bacteria don't always do well in feedbags or feedstore conditions. So we hedge-our-bets and supplement the live bacteria. (More on that below.)

Treats: they're cute little babies, and we want to spoil them, but there's a way to do it safely. Before four weeks, the only treats I would give my babies are easily dissolved ones. That means a little bit of yogurt (a teaspoon for six chicks is an estimated treat), some boiled egg yolk mushed up. And lots of their good starter food!

To understand "why" I give this advice, you have to know a little about chicken digestion. Short course: Chickens are dependant upon grit (not the corn product, but tiny bits of rock, gravel, etc) in their gizzard. The gizzard, filled with hard materials that have been provided for the chickens literally grinds their food into a managable size. This food passes on to the rest of the digestive tract which is lined with beneficial bacteria. The bacteria do the rest of the breaking down of fibers, etc, which is why chickens can eat a whole kernal of corn and digest it - unlike us. Bacteria are essential from the start, grit is essential as soon as the bird eats anything more solid than crumbles, yogurt, and egg yolk.

If either of those two important things (bacteria/grit) are missing and a bird eats something big (a raison, a corn piece, grass) then it gets stuck in their crop (the pocket that you're now learning about) and sours and poisons the chick. It also blocks all other food from passing through. The chick becomes listless, lethargic, and eventuallly dies if the food doesn't pass through. That can also happen in adults ("sour crop"). Food usually passes through in 24 hours which keeps us from panicking when our birds eat a LOAD of food, making their little crops feel a bit like an overstuffed bean bag!

It's normal for that to happen, but the crops should empty. If they don't, then we go on to sour crop (another post, aanother time)

OK so - no more big treats for babies.

If you want to let them have access to grass (no grains, please, ) then you'll provide them appropriately sized grit. I just would start mine on play-sand from the hardware store, or sometimes parakeet grit with the big pieces taken out. I don't do that early because the babies will eat too much and compact themselves. Just add a little, then a little more. When they're adults, they can have this free-choice (as much as they want).

But for now, just stick with crumbles and safe treats.

Probiotics: to give them live bacteria, try plain yogurt, acidophilus capsules or tablets from the grocery/pharmacy/health food store, or try a live-bacteria probiotic from your local or online feedstores and livestock supply. My favorite is Probios or fastrack. Probios comes in a tube that you can easily mix with crumbles, water, a little egg yolk to make a smashing little healthy treat for the babies! You can also feed them yogurt that way.

OK summary:
No big treats - only small easily dissolve ones for now.
Monitor the baby: his crop should empty in 24 hours, not smell bad, and he should continue to be hungry. If not, let us know.
Probiotics: get some, use them, even if it's just 1 teaspoon of yogurt per six babies.
Grit: introduce slowly when the babies are a bigger (preferably feathered). Then try very tiny treats to start - grass, very small corn chops (tho not a lot- that really dilutes the nutrition in the food you're paying good money for), halved grapes, etc.

 

[AmericanMade]

Quote:
Thank YOU sooo much!!!!

Loads of help!!!!

 

[whirledwidepeas]

I have a very similar situation, but the chick is 4 weeks old. Matilda has a very squishy, fluidy, lump in her crop area. It's the size of a golf ball! All she gets is chick crumbles and a very occasional mealworm. She's acting completely normal, running around with the others.

Is it normal for the sac to be so squishy? It definitely doesn't feel like food in there, and none of the other 10 chicks have it.

Thanks for your help!

 

[threehorses]

WHIRLEDWIDEPEAS:
It depends on three things, peas:

a) Did she drink recently?
b) If you open her mouth, does her throat/crop smell sour?
and
c) Does the crop empty overnight, or stay squishy?

If there's no food (or food mush, important difference) in there, she might just have a large empty crop - stretched from when she eats. If it's not emptying, then that's another matter - contact us.

 

[bikergirl]

Quote:
thats what I was thinking

 

[whirledwidepeas]

Thanks for your responses! I think you're right, probably just a stretched out crop. She smells fine and after a few hours the lump went from squishy to solid, and now today it's much smaller and just feels like a loose bag of skin. She needs to learn some portion control!

Thanks again!