Depressed chicken??? or something else?

[epitidios]

Hallo to all of you out there. I am really new in raising chickens, so i still have to learn A LOT. I noticed that one of them the last couple of days is not vivid at all. She looks like she is depressed. She is a a few weeks old (~12) and i noticed that she spents most of time sitting down, alone, and far from the other birds. In total i got 20 birds and all of them apart from her are growing fine. I also noticed that she is not excited when i go to feed them (the last couple of days only) or give them fresh water. Is it possible for a chicken to be depressed or is it because of a disease?

Thanx a lot in advance

 

[schellie69]

Have you checked for mite/lice is she eating or drinking how does her vent look? are her feathers fluffed up? What food are you feeding do they free range. It could really be a number of things we will need more information on her symptoms I don't know if chickens really get depressed but my 1st thought would be illness.

 

[epitidios]

Quote:
I grabbed her a while ago and her feathers look fine. To be more precise, her feathers look like the feathers of the other chickens, that are fine. I feed them corn and bran, some fruits, and also some vegetable left overs (tomotoes, cucuumbers, lettuce, etc). I do not have them free range, but they have their own area outside the coop. Are lice visible? Or there are symptoms?

Thanx a lot for your help

 

[elmo]

You're not feeding them anything else than what you listed? It could be a dietary deficiency...not enough protein, etc.

 

[epitidios]

Quote:
Their menu is:
corn
wheat
bran
tomatoes
lettuce
cucumber
watermelon and melon
onions
peaches \\& apricots
different kind of fruits
bread
also food left overs as long as long it is not egg, fish or meat

Do you reckon i am missing things in their nutrition? If yes which are they?

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

That's a perfect diet, but like other's have mentioned there's one thing missing: animal protein! Chickens are omnivores, and in the growing stage need all the protein they can get to help them grow. Now I'm not saying this is the cause, but it's something you might want to consider. This chicken might have been laid back or lower in the pecking order, and never gota fair share of food and any bug the others might come across. How is she eating?

 

[seminolewind]

You may need some chick feed.
I have to admit that when this happens to me, and it has several times, I treat for coccidiosis. It does not always have bloody stool, in fact , I've only seen bloody stool once since there are different kinds of coccidiosis.

If you are feeding anything hard (dried corn), they need grit.

But my first treatment would be for coccidiosis.

 

[epitidios]

Quote:
I guess i should start giving them some meat as well. The problem is that i am not eating a lot of meat myself

.

 

[Kittymomma]

That's a pretty low protien diet. There may be something else going on but I'd start by switching to a good grower feed that has at least 20% protien in it. Corn is only around 9% protien and while the rest of the treats/food you are giving them are pretty healthy none of them have anymore protien in them then the corn does. Put the chicks on grower and limit the other feed to about 10% of their diet. It seems that the other chicks are ok for now, but I would expect them to grow slower and be more vulnerable to illness/parasites then they need to be if you keep them on their present diet. You can try giving your run down one some scrambled eggs and see if that will entice her to eat. It's a good high-protien food that most of them really like and will eat even when they're feeling a bit off.

 

[epitidios]

I just went to give their dinner. All of them came and i tried to feed them by hand. Eventhough i was next to her she showed no inteterest at all. She just ate a little bit from the rest of the food on the pile. We have also quite a lot of heat (30+C) at moment, so this could one more reason for feeling discomfort. I will try to change their diet and see how they will all behave.