Chicken only drinks water and eats grass

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azygous said:
What is your location on the planet Earth? We need to know where you live so we can know the conditions that your rooster lives under.

Has he always shunned feed and preferred grass? If so, that may indicate he has a condition called "pica". It's an eating disorder where strange things are selected to eat, a obsession. To help the rooster, he must be kept away from the grass for now.

He probably has a serious vitamin deficiency. He needs vitamin E and the B-complex @SmiYa0126 mentioned, and a good poultry multivitamin solution.
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We are south west Western Australia - on acreage and the chickens have a lot of access to green grass, this particular one is always eating it and has always had really watery diarrhoea. There is another rooster in with him who may be keeping him away from the food so that may well be compounding the situation 🙁 knowing this birds history, Pica does sound plausible - always picking at fresh green grass and is ALWAYS at the water bowl 😑 will continue on his mineral and vitamin supplements today
 
Eggcessive said:
How does his crop feel early in the morning before he eats or drinks—empty and flat, full, hard, doughy, or puffy? Has he always just eaten grass, or is this recent behavior? Do you have other roosters who may be keeping him from feed? He needs vitamin E 400 IU daily, along with 1/2 tablet of vitamin B complex for a couple of weeks. It might be necessary to crate him with chicken feed and water, but keep the crate with his flock.
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Crop is empty in the morning, will have to sort out a seperate area for him to go to hopefully get him back on the right path, get his diet balanced again. Always just eaten grass since he came here but he used to come inside and get treats in the kitchen, which probably helped balance his diet. Stopped that a little while ago as he was challenging to clean up after 😬 shall have to find a Balanced food source that he can’t resist
 
Since you have another rooster, I probably would not separate him in another area, but crate him in the same area for part of the day when he is hungry, so he can eat , and still be around the other rooster. If you separate him away from the other, he might not be accepted later on. Flock dynamics should always be considered where roosters are concerned.
 
Eggcessive said:
How does his crop feel early in the morning before he eats or drinks—empty and flat, full, hard, doughy, or puffy? Has he always just eaten grass, or is this recent behavior? Do you have other roosters who may be keeping him from feed? He needs vitamin E 400 IU daily, along with 1/2 tablet of vitamin B complex for a couple of weeks. It might be necessary to crate him with chicken feed and water, but keep the crate with his flock.
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I have actually just pulled him out again this morning to give him extra tlc, first thing but after quite a lot of water his crop is doughy feeling, I can feel grass in it - after a full night with nothing to eat
 
Quick up date for everyone - I had ceased the Berocca in case it was not doing him any good and by this morning he was star gazing and flipping over backwards again. The other water supplement I have he doesn’t willingly drink. Was a challenge to get fluid into him this morning as the moment he would lift his head to swallow he would go into spasms again 😢 but back onto Berocca performance and the star gazing eased within a couple of hours once we got it into him. Managed to get him to have banana and cheese but struggling to get him eating properly. Going to be a long road if he makes it but my priority is maintaining minerals & vitamins and trying to get protein into him as much as we can - his crop has been clearing so I am hoping that is not the problem 😬 The two roosters together do get on, but Salty is an incredibly soft natured soul so he has probably not been eating properly if Bart was near by and I have not picked it up 🙁 I had noticed he was always at the water bowl, think he thought that would get him by 😢 Note to self, it is not normal for a bird to drink so much water 😢
 

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