Crop not emptying on baby chick

[chickens really]

I don't ........I think chick will be fine....

 

[Isaac 0]

No, it doesn't feed unavailable overnight poses zero risk to them. Even the newest of chicks do not need to eat 24/7

x2.

My broody hen raised chicks dont have food at night.No one has ever died.Hens in the wild are not going to be up at 3am trying to find food for there chicks.

 

[casportpony]

Yes....But human raised Chicks have no Momma to teach them to eat before dark...

Many people raise chicks under brooder plates without lights, and when the sun goes down, the chicks stop eating, right? I am one of those that uses brooder plates and I can promise you that they can go an evening without food and that they don't need a hen to teach them to eat.

 

[lazy gardener]

Absolutely agree. Chicks do not need to eat over night. We would do well to take a lesson from the natural brooding style: Mama keeps chicks warm as needed. They crawl under her at dusk, and sleep till dawn. She does not keep them under a bright light 24/7, so they are not at all inclined to eat during the night. If OP has her chicks under a heat lamp (light 24/7) they will be inclined to eat 24/7, thus she may never see an empty crop in a piggy chick. I have never seen a chick that needed a broody to teach her to eat in the evening. My MHP raised chicks come and go from their MHP, just as they would with a broody hen. They come out to eat and play, just as they would with a broody hen. At dusk, they all crawl under their MHP and trill themselves to sleep (just like they would with a broody hen, except she'd add her voice to the bed time lull-a-by) Never witnessed that night time sing-song trill with heat lamp raised chicks.

 

[aswartzalso]

They are under an ecoglow heater. No light. Bedding is paper towels for now am change to line shavings. She was not as full this afternoon. Hoping she is just fine

 

[casportpony]

They are under an ecoglow heater. No light. Bedding is paper towels for now am change to line shavings. She was not as full this afternoon. Hoping she is just fine

She's probably just a healthy piggy, but if you want to be sure, remove the food tonight when it gets dark and check in the morning.

 

[SonoranChick]

This happened to my barnevelder when she was days old, I was so worried. Her crop was as large as the rest of her whole body! She acted completely normal, but the crop felt hard. I tried to massage it but she seemed uncomfortable. I waited (and worried!) patiently for days and she ended up being just fine! I think it was normal...she was just tiny with a FULL crop! I didn't take her food away and she had the lights on at night. Hopefully this is the case with your baby!

 

[peeper89]

Consider this a chance to learn then....
chicks are designed to follow a natural day/night cycle from hatch, just like an adult bird. This means they are designed to fill their crop at "bedtime" and then digest that feed during the overnight hours, waking with an empty crop in the morning and filling it again. Pulling feed from them at the time they should be going to roost and replacing it in the morning after checking the crop of a suspected crop issue bird poses absolutely zero risk of causing "starveout" to that chick or any other chick in the brood. It is actually the commonly prescribed approach in these exact situations - regardless of bird age.