Chicken opening mouth with no sound — is this normal?

[jessloveschickens]

Hello all,
I hope this is the right forum for this and I apologize if it’s not. I just adopted two chickens yesterday, and one keeps opening her mouth without letting out noise. She is a light brahma about three months old, from what we were told. She seems to be repeating this behavior every twenty seconds or so, so I want to make sure it’s normal. I’m unable to attach a video for some reason (forgive me, technology is not my strong suit), so here is a screengrab from a video I took. She opens her mouth for only a second at a time and then closes it again. It almost looks like she’s trying to crow or make another loud noise with the way she opens her beak wide and pushes her head forward.
Thank you for any help!

 

[jessloveschickens]

I want to add — she seems entirely happy, I just have never seen this before and want to make sure it’s not a sign something is wrong.

 

[coach723]

To post a video you need to upload it to another host, like youtube, and put the link here, then it can be seen. She may be adjusting her crop, but without seeing it that's just guessing. Seeing the video would be helpful.

 

[Ebaumgardner]

I’m not saying this will be your hen… but I had a hen who did this for a few months. She was progressively getting ill, though. It started with sneezing, then it was coughing etc… the opening mouth (with no sound) thing all the time! She eventually stopped eating. She became pale over time, had gleet butt..stopped laying, was lethargic, no longer active, would close her eyes and appear to be sleeping. I have done everything in my power from deworming, respiratory medication, natural remedies etc… … a lot of love, nothing helped. The inevitable happened last night and we had to put her down. She was ready though. I cry everytime, she was such a sweet heart. Her name was Greta, anyway this isn’t about my hen, but yours… Talking about it helps and so just keep an eye on her. Sometimes they simply get something stuck from foraging and they just need to get it out.

 

[Cheaps]

I think this is fairly common. All of my chickens have done it from time to time and they just go back to normal later. I'm surprised with all the chicken people out there in the world there's no solid answer in the threads about this.

 

[Ebaumgardner]

This could be common to an extent. But constantly doing this, for months on end with other symptoms is not normal. We ended up putting my hen down, she wasn’t laying, she wasn’t eating, she would hardly drink, she wasn’t active. It was sad. Something was clearly wrong and for the life of me, after all my interventions … nothing helped.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

To post a video you need to upload it to another host, like youtube, and put the link here, then it can be seen. She may be adjusting her crop, but without seeing it that's just guessing. Seeing the video would be helpful.

I agree.

Please post the video so we can see her actions. Hard to make any type of suggestions or even guesses with out it.

Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

Thank you!

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I'm curious about any update on how your Brahma pullet is doing? I've had this go both ways, down hill to respiratory issue or turn out to be temporary event, nothing bad. Hope she's doing well.

 

[KerriWilson]

Hello all,
I hope this is the right forum for this and I apologize if it’s not. I just adopted two chickens yesterday, and one keeps opening her mouth without letting out noise. She is a light brahma about three months old, from what we were told. She seems to be repeating this behavior every twenty seconds or so, so I want to make sure it’s normal. I’m unable to attach a video for some reason (forgive me, technology is not my strong suit), so here is a screengrab from a video I took. She opens her mouth for only a second at a time and then closes it again. It almost looks like she’s trying to crow or make another loud noise with the way she opens her beak wide and pushes her head forward.
Thank you for any help!View attachment 3117446

mine is doing this. I lost one 2 days ago that was doing this now a 2nd one is doing it.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

mine is doing this. I lost one 2 days ago that was doing this now a 2nd one is doing it.

Welcome To BYC

Can you start your own thread along with a description of symptoms, age of birds, photos, what you feed and what if any treatments you have administered?