Abnormally full crop. 4week old Nankin Bantam

[Hermiegirl2]

What does a normal but very full crop feel like? My 4 week old chick has a very large crop. It actually caught my attention when I peeked in on them. It does feel very firm, but pliable. I have never seen that happen before. When people say it feels "hard" for an impacted crop how hard it is? Will I know the difference?

Her behavior seems fine. She poops fine too, but this large crop is very recent. I weighed her earlier this afternoon and the fullness was not there at that time. I did feed her and her brothers three or four tiny earthworms today for the first time. Was that a bad thing?

I have three chicks total. They are all in a brooder with 80 degree temp (indoors with a heat light).

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Nervous chick mamma.

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

A blocked crop is usually detected if the crop does not empty. With our birds, they may have stuffed crops after eating in the evening, but have smaller crops in the morning after they have digested their food.
In our chicks especially, the crop seems really big because the chick is so small. In ours, it sometimes looks like a huge lump on their chest. For a chick, you may want to monitor them to see if they are growing well to tell if they have a blocked crop, since they eat so much.

 

[HorseFeathers]

I think she's just been a little greedy. Watch the crop- if the hard lump stays for more than about eight hours, something may be wrong.

Sour crop feels squishy.
Impacted crop is hard, but the bird acts "off".

If the crop is pliable, like warm putty (weird metaphor, I know) she's probably fine.