Chick Gasping-Gorged on Feed -Experts, How to Remove Feed From Throat

[Pine Grove]

Anytime I have chicks deprived of feed like in your case speckledhen I always wet mash them, If not they will gobble so fast the feed cant go into their crops fast enough, Ive seen hundreds do this, throats would be the size of your finger, Ive only ever seen one that choked to death, most times they will work it down themselfs..

 

[tazcat70]

I had just mentioned this on the feeding list...well not the fact that they gorged themselves, but that they are acting like they are STARVING all the time! I thought maybe they needed additional protein, I was told just to keep feed down all the time...I already did that. Now I just fill it even when there is still food in it, just to keep it full. It seems to have helped a little but not as much as I had hoped it would.

Glad your chicks are doing ok, I am sure you are ready for the others to be gone since you have a full brooder.

 

[speckledhen]

I have always kept feed down 24/7 and when I went to bed, they had plenty. When I saw them first thing, they had eaten almost every crumb, so they just jumped onto that feed like they hadn't had any for two days.
Today, I did some work on the broody pen, which is a smaller pen inside the shed that houses the nursery coop. The broody cage/pen is about 5x3.5 with a wooden ceiling about 4 ft high, whereas their brooder was maybe 2x3 only 1.5' deep. They now have the huge galvanized feeder and the gallon waterer and a little roost we made a long time ago that sits on the floor made from a wooden towel rack. They found that feed first thing and hopefully were more normal in their eating this time. When I went out to check on them, four BR chicks were on the little roost. They have a 250 watt red heatlamp and a 150 watt red reptile heat lamp on one wall, so they can get in or out of the heat. I think 20 chicks were just getting too big for the brooder at 3 weeks old. Now they have plenty of room to play and spar and do whatever they want.
I moved Hawkeye in with the chicks, who will be gone tomorrow or Sunday, depending on the weather. Then Hawkeye will share with three older chicks till Kate gets her Ameraucana pullet next weekend.