cockerel makes a sound like a donkey after stuffing his face - transient stridor? or something else?

cityeggs

Songster
Oct 25, 2021
159
194
123
Bay Area, CA
I have 14 w 1 accidental cockerel and 3 pullets. Sky, the cockerel, has been crowing for a few weeks now - and his crows sound completely normal - not baby ones anymore. He has always been one to be face-down in the food when he notices/remembers that there's food around. I'm still feeding them chick crumbles bc my local small feed store only carries layer pellets and chick crumbles - no all-flock feed. It's always available, I don't ever remove food, though occasionally I've noticed that the crumbles don't come down properly in their new feeder, and they've been stuck with mostly dust, so perhaps this problem has arisen bc he doesn't trust that there will be food available?

A few times recently, after madly eating for a bit, he'll step back and make a noise that sounds like a donkey or one squeeze of a squeaky toy. The first time I heard him do it, they were in our temporary run while we worked on the coop for an hour and I realized they'd finished off the small feeder we had in there. When I put more in, he ate and ate and made that noise, kept opening his mouth, and weaving his neck back and forth as if he'd eaten too much and couldn't get it to go down. It sounded a little like stridor, but he only made the noise once, then quiet again for 5-10 min, and then repeat. I kept trying to get him to take a break and drink something. He did eventually drink some water and later stopped making the noise, and closed his mouth, and the head weaving stopped by the time they were ready to roost an hour or so later. I did check on him the next morning - made sure droppings looked normal and that he was acting normal, and he was.

I didn't check his crop that morning bc I'm now leery of approaching him in the morning, after he came out and bit me recently when I opened the pop door. Since then, I've been leaving the pop door open (their run is secure - but I had been keeping it closed bc we had a little cold snap) so I don't have to go through that before coffee (I had announced myself, but he was crowing so I'm not sure whether he just didn't hear that it was me and thought it was something scary so came out all puffed up and hangry, or whether this is the beginning of bigger hormone problems). Because he seemed fine an hour later, and still the next day, I assumed he'd gotten hungry and ate too fast and either inhaled a little food, or just had trouble getting it all to go down, but it seemed to have resolved and not caused any further issue. I can figure out a way to check his crop, though, if that would help.

This afternoon, when I came in the coop to check on them, all the chickens happened to remember that they had food (it had been there the whole time) and they all went over to the feeder. Sky, again, was face down in the food, and dashing around the feeder (it hangs and spins a little when they eat sometimes) and again made that squeaky toy noise once or twice, though no weaving neck, and only a moment or two of open mouth breathing this time (seemed less of an issue than the first time).

Does it sound like he's eating too fast and getting a little stuck? If so, aside from insuring that they always have plenty of food, is there anything I can do about it? I've been thinking maybe I need to add another feeder and not only would there be more so if the crumbles got stuck again, there would be a back-up/it wouldn't happen at the same time with both, and also there would be less of a melee around the food (though all 4 of them easily can all eat at once from the current feeder). Is there anything else that it could be? Today, I couldn't tell whether it was Sky or one of the pullets, but someone was making a sound that sounded like a single bark from a yappy dog - not sure of another way to describe it - while they were eating. The pullets have started sounding like they've mostly gotten their adult voices, though I still hear the occasional honk, and one still sounds chick-like sometimes when she's worrying that it's bedtime and no one else will go up to the coop with her, so it could've been one of the pullets whose voice is still changing just objecting to being pushed off the feeder by him?

They have free access to grit, though at the moment all I have is chick grit - larger grit should be arriving tomorrow. Let me know if there's any more info I've missed that would be helpful.
 
If you are noticing this when he's eating, I would say that is Stridor.

You mention the feed is often powdery, gets stuck in the "new feeder" and/or that he seems to in hurry to eat his feed because he doesn't "trust" that food is available.

What is the new feeder?
If the feed is really powdery, then you can try offering it wet or fermented to see if this resolves the aspiration of feed. Wet feed also uses up all that powder that the chickens may not eat, so there's a bit less waste too.
You can give an option of one feeder with dry feed and another bowl or hanging cups with wet mash, let them choose.
My laying hens really like wet feed, but I do make dry available as well.

At 14weeks of age, I wouldn't worry about them eating chick starter, that's perfectly fine imho. Personally, I would not switch to layer feed until they all come into lay.
 
If you are noticing this when he's eating, I would say that is Stridor.

You mention the feed is often powdery, gets stuck in the "new feeder" and/or that he seems to in hurry to eat his feed because he doesn't "trust" that food is available.

What is the new feeder?
If the feed is really powdery, then you can try offering it wet or fermented to see if this resolves the aspiration of feed. Wet feed also uses up all that powder that the chickens may not eat, so there's a bit less waste too.
You can give an option of one feeder with dry feed and another bowl or hanging cups with wet mash, let them choose.
My laying hens really like wet feed, but I do make dry available as well.

At 14weeks of age, I wouldn't worry about them eating chick starter, that's perfectly fine imho. Personally, I would not switch to layer feed until they all come into lay.
Thank you!

I had been doing wet mash with the left-over powdery stuff with their chick feeder bc it was easy to dump out the powder before refilling it. I'd stopped since it's such a pain with the larger feeder (I'd have to take it apart to avoid making a big mess), but with your suggestion, I just realized I could sieve out the powder so it doesn't go into the feeder in the first place and reserve it that way. I like your idea of hanging cups for the mash - I hadn't thought of that - one less thing for them to dump.

The new feeder is the Little Giant Galvanized small (12 lb?) hanging feeder. I think this is the size I got:
https://smithlandsupply.com/little-giant-galvanized-hanging-poultry-feeder-tube-12lb/
I know some feeders work better with pellets vs crumbles - maybe that's the case with this one? We're in our "wet" season here in CA and humidity close to the ground is much higher than the rest of the year, so maybe that's playing a part too in the feed not moving down easily? I had intended to make a PVC feeder, but, because of supply chain issues, they outgrew their chick feeder in the time that it's taken to get the PVC parts I wanted, and this was the only option at our little local feed store. I do like that the sides of the pan are high enough that they're not billing out much/any feed, and that was one of my concerns. The pan feeder I had seen when I chicken-sat for friends was a total mess with pellets everywhere in a 2' radius around the feeder.

I was considering ordering some all-flock feed soon, since it's unclear how much longer we'll have our cockerel - I'm glad to hear chick crumbles are still ok for a little while longer. I have oyster shell on hand to put out once the girls get to POL - our red sex-link looks like she's getting close.
 
And I'd just been looking up the fermented feed approach from the one highlighted in the email newsletter the other week. I haven't gotten to it yet, but plan to soon - that makes sense that it also would help with the aspiration of feed.
 
Pellets may work better in that feeder. You may need to go out a couple of times a day and tap or shake the feed down if it seems to be sticking.
I had one like that but with our humidity, no matter where I placed the feeder, sometimes it would sweat and the feed would mold, so I got to where I just put in enough for a day instead of filling it up. Then I switched to just cups. There can still be spillage, but for me, they are easy to clean and I can easily give wet and dry feed. Most days I'm home, so I check on them several times a day too.
 
Pellets may work better in that feeder. You may need to go out a couple of times a day and tap or shake the feed down if it seems to be sticking.
I had one like that but with our humidity, no matter where I placed the feeder, sometimes it would sweat and the feed would mold, so I got to where I just put in enough for a day instead of filling it up. Then I switched to just cups. There can still be spillage, but for me, they are easy to clean and I can easily give wet and dry feed. Most days I'm home, so I check on them several times a day too.
Thank you for your help! Here to report back - the main issue seems to have been that bag of feed. After opening my next bag of crumbles, it is clear that the previous bag was very high in disintegrated crumbles - it had seemed a little powdery compared to my first bag, but being new to this, it didn't register just how significant the difference was. While finishing off that bag, it was very helpful to sift out all the "dust" before putting it in the feeder (there was a ton). Doing that - the crumbles move through the feeder just fine now, the dust doesn't build up at the base where it is difficult to get out, and no more stridor for my fast eater. Now that I'm in the habit of sifting the feed, I've kept doing it with the newer bag, even though the texture is much more stable and much less dust. In addition, the habit of feeding wet mash regularly is great for my pullet with mild cross beak.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom