Behavior that might be a disability?

Bourdon

In the Brooder
Apr 19, 2022
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Hi!

I just introduced myself but I also wanted to ask for some guidance with one of our chicks. I hope this is the correct place to do this…

We have a 6 week Favorelle that doesn’t seem to be quite right. We love her to death but we wondered if anyone had experienced this type of thing and if you have any thoughts which may help us.

Our girl has difficulties with everyday situations, learning to eat from a feeder, or a treat. Something may spook everyone and she looks around confused and does her soft confused cry. Everyone is eating and she will be confused about where everyone went and begin wandering about and looking around crying. Amazingly, almost every time one of the other chicks will go and get her and gently guide her to whatever they are doing. If she doesn’t fit on the perch she wants to be on it she will cry and eventually pull someone off the perch. No one gets mad, they just move for her. If she trying to sleep alone and begins to cry because she alone one of the other chicks will come and cuddle up with her.

As an example, one day I gave the girls treats. They were overjoyed. In this day she dashed over to join the excitement. While they were eating the treats she picked up a shaving and dashed about for a second, then began making confused noise. One of our other girls went over to her and walked her to the group, she watched for about 10 minutes and finally began to sample the treats. In another example we recently moved them to a big girl feeder and had to leave the chick feeder in too for her to eat from until she figured out what to do.

We think she may be disabled when we watch her behavior and compare her to her sisters. She’s been like this since we purchased her and we want to help her in any way possible. She seems normal physically and her vision does seem fine. We are concerned about what may happen when we begin to allow them to range on our property but we are willing to keep her from doing so if necessary.

Thank you to everyone who read this far! Does anyone have any suggestions for this type of situation? All thoughts, ideas and experiences are so welcome!

Hugs - Lisa
 

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Hi Lisa!
Where did you purchase the chicks?
Can you take a clear video of this one chick...how it's acting?

What treats are you feeding? Treats should really not be fed to chicks at all. Wait until the birds are full grown and make sure you never feed more than one tablespoon amount worth of what ever treat you offer to each bird. Feeding treats takes away from the bird getting a balance diet and not getting a balanced diet will cause issues.
 
Its hard to tell from the photo but her pupil looks kind of misshapen and your description of her behavior reminds me very much of my departed Weezy who was mostly blind from a young age (I got her at four weeks or so). You can keep a special needs chicken and my advice would be to never get rid of her seeing-eye chickens, keep them together regardless of what adjustments you make later. Keep a feeder and waterer in the same place so she can find it. Any stress on these chickens can be a downward spiral so you kind of have to make arrangements designed around her disability.
 
Hi!

Thanks everyone for your input. I can certainly try to get a video of her behavior. We have watched her critically and extensively and although limited vision might be an issue I’m not seeing any significant signs of it. She does not run into fences or bump into other difficult to see objects, as long as she sees what she is familiar with she can make a beeline for it.

I will continue watching her. And yes certainly we will absolutely keep her. Our animals are family and she is just a slightly quirky member. I like what BlindLemonChicken said about her guide chicken too. She does seem to have 3 or 4 who take prodigious care of her. I will ensure they are always available to guide her.

I will keep watching for signs of vision issues and let you all know, if anyone has any more advice and or any thoughts please let me know!
 
My blind girl always spun in circles when she wasn't sure what was going on. I think one eye was better than the other. I don't know if you've seen any of that but there are some things you can do to test her vision like using a flashlight to see if her pupils dilate or moving a finger close to her eye slowly to see if she reacts.
 
My blind girl always spun in circles when she wasn't sure what was going on. I think one eye was better than the other. I don't know if you've seen any of that but there are some things you can do to test her vision like using a flashlight to see if her pupils dilate or moving a finger close to her eye slowly to see if she reacts.
Thank you! Yes she does react to both. Still I wonder if she sees only enough to see an object and/or have some reactivity to light. She does turn ina circle during her confused state.
 

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