Baby chick with head twitching. Normal or something else?

[StephensonC]

I have a 2 day old EE chick that has just started twitching it's head. She is eating and drinking good, and I have sav a chick in their water. It's almost as if she has food or fluff stuck in her mouth or face. She will twitch her head and then scratch at it with her foot. I'm hoping that's all it is and not something else that I may not be aware of. This is only my second batch of chicks and I don't know all the ins and outs yet. She was also very sticky when she hatched and had pieces of gunk stuck to her bottom, head and around the eyes. I have gradually been gently brushing at it with a soft toothbrush to loosen it up. Most of it is better, but there is some very crusty stuff between her beak and eye. I'm afraid to mess with it, in fear of accidentally injuring her eye or nostril. Am I just being paranoid or could the twitching be something I should worry about?

Update: I just noticed she is twitching her feet also. Kinda like she is stomping her feet for a second.

 

[Folly's place]

I would finish cleaning her up, in case she's just uncomfortable. If she's unwell, she may get worse, not good. Fresh chick starter should be a complete feed, but individuals with special needs do occur, although she's young to be showing a deficiency. Mary

 

[StephensonC]

I would finish cleaning her up, in case she's just uncomfortable. If she's unwell, she may get worse, not good. Fresh chick starter should be a complete feed, but individuals with special needs do occur, although she's young to be showing a deficiency. Mary

I switched brands of the starter feed today. The one I was using is a starter/grower and the crumbles were kinda big, especially since she is a small chick. I switched to the MannaPro starter and she seems to be able to eat that much better. I was thinking maybe the bigger pieces were getting hung up in her crop or something. Anyway, she has stopped twitching her feet and isn't twitching her head much at all now.

Is it possible for them to get too much vitamins? I stopped the Sav a Chick just in case.

I did go ahead and use a damp q-tip to clean the crusty stuff off of her face and around her eye. It wasn't as hard to get off as I thought it would be. She looks much better and I'm sure she is more comfortable.

 

[Folly's place]

Good work! Mary

 

[StephensonC]

She is still twitching her head today, but other than that, she seems fine. I started back with the vitamins. I don't know what else to do.

 

[MsvickiP]

I have my first flock of 5 Easter eggers, which all were the same colour except one. This one was also the smallest and seemed to be the weakest of the group. I noticed it was twisting it’s head back and immediately worried. After searching this site mainly and discovering it was lacking nutrients, added the save-a-chick powder, along with the magic chick water that had apple cider vinegar, honey and chopped garlic soaked. The little one improved, got enough energy to move around, flap its wings a bit, and seemed happier and healthier. After a few days of hand feeding mushed up food along with this concoction, I reduced the amount of mash and eased off so much of the vitamin waters. Tonight I noticed the little one has been sleeping an awful lot, won’t want to keep its eyes open for very long, isn’t as interested in pecking and don’t have much zest in its spirit with the other chick. I have once again made this magic chick water mixed with the chick saver. After hand feeding this mixture on a 1ml syringe and it getting about half of that down(which was a struggle since all the little one wanted to do was fall asleep in my hand) it seemed to have perked it up enough to be currious about my hand wrinkle, pecked at me and start looking around the room like it used to. I’ll continue to hand feed and encourage the vitamin water until it improves. If anyone has some advice for what will be the best for the little one, I’d really appreciate the advice!