Brown Runny Poop - What am I doing Wrong?

[Stella1964]

My four pullets are 9 weeks old. In the last few days, I noticed lots of runny brown plops of poop and no more of the firmer white capped grey droppings they used to have. I'm hoping it's just a matter of changing their food. I'm praying they don't suddenly have some disease

For the last 3 weeks or so, here's what's changed from their simple diet of pullet starter only:

- at 7 weeks, I started integrating their pullet starter (20% protein) with pullet grower (16% protein), half and half; now they're on pullet grower only
- about 3 weeks ago, started giving them treats once a day, like a tomato, or a cup of cottage cheese or plain yoghurt, butter milk, strawberries etc. Never more than one cup of one of these per day.
- water changed every day, with a very light application of electrolites that they've been consuming from Day 1

Are they having too many treats? Are these too high in protein? Perhaps the change from starter to grower has caused it...or is it something more serious?? I do not notice anything else wrong with them...they eat like little porkers (so cute), and drink lots, and still run around like crazy in their pen.

Please tell me what I should do!

 

[carress]

Mine did that too at about 5 weeks... they're all still alive and kicking...

 

[sammi]

cut out the treats or keep to a bare minimum..they need the protein and other nutrients from the feed., and they could be causing the diarrhea.
and they really don't need the calcium from the cottage cheese and buttermilk.

.for now...keep the diet simple and see if the droppings firm up.

you might have changed the feed a little too quick..
best to do 1/4 new feed to 3/4 old feed..raising to 1/2 and 1/2..etc, for a week at a time.
(others might have different opinion)

if after cutting out the treats ..and the diarrhea is still going on..it's possible it could be early signs of cocci..

do you have any cocci meds on hand?
are you able to have a fecal check done at a vet?

 

[tiki244]

another thing I was thinking is maybe to cut the electrolytes in half,,,,,,,,,Are you giving them a maintanence dose,,,I wouldnt give them too many of thre electrolytes

 

[Stella1964]

No cocci meds available here and no fecal tests that I'm aware of.

I'm giving them less than a maintenance dose of electrolites, which is even less than what the experienced chicken feller in the store told me to do, but nonetheless I don't think they need it so when I change over their water today, I will just give them plain water from now on.

As to the treats, I wasn't giving them cottage cheese and buttermilk etc for calcium. I was giving it to them for something interesting to eat, soft, and high in protein. But if the calcium content of these items is harming them, I'll certainly stop that practice! ARe they ok just to eat the crumbles for now? They're going into their outdoor pen next week.

I'm suspecting that the change from starter to grower was done too fast, you're right. I was just told to do it "gradually".

Not sure what that means so I did half and half for two weeks. I guess that's too fast. So I will add starter into their grower again.

Hopefully, the combination of pure water, no milk products, and starter/grower mix will help get their poops under control again.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[petlove]

Quote:
Mine have been doing this off and on since a few weeks old. I use a medicated starter/grower pellet. I thought the medicated protected them from cocci. Any thoughts?