dlhunicorn: Chick with clear, watery droppings, for 2 weeks:worry?

SeaChick

Songster
12 Years
Apr 25, 2007
1,660
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206
Southern Maine
Hi all,

Our EE chick, Fatima, is almost 3 weeks old. Since she arrived at 1 day old her droppings have been different than the rest, almost all the time. As she seems otherwise fine, I was trying not to worry, but it got the best of me today: what do you all think?????

Most of the time she passes a lot of CLEAR LIQUID with smaller green/brown poops that hold their form within it. Not diarrhea. I have seen her pass normal droppings maybe twice in almost 3 weeks, and seen LOTS of these water-poops.

This chick is acting fine, and always has. She seems to eat normally (especially if mealworms are offered! And yes they get grit with the mealworms) and drinks OK (maybe not quite as much as the others.) They have AviaCharge 2000 in their water now because of the runty chick we adopted, so I feel fairly certain that she's getting nutrients.

From the start, this EE and her "sister" EE have been the lightest of the 5 chicks, and Fatima is the lightest, but not by a shocking amount compared to her "sister" and the lone RIR.

I know that watery clear droppings usually indicate that she's not processing her food well, but since she's been growing just fine I wasn't too concerned. My daughter seems to think that one of our chicks last year had the same thing, although I don't recall it.

I also read on dlhunicorn's poop page that it can be caused by stress, so I put it down to that for a while. This chick, though, is the least bothered by anything. She is extremely curious and overtly friendly, flying onto your hand if you hold it in the brooder. Doesn't seem like the nervous type!

The only thing I have noticed out of the ordinary is that she likes to eat the shavings that get kicked into the waterer (after they are soaked). I have raised the waterer and change the water twice a day or more but I can't keep every shaving out of there.

I also bought some new feed just to be sure that the old stuff wasn't stale or something... so I am pretty sure that the feed is OK.

Do you think I should be concerned? I don't know what I could really be doing differently, but I am open to all suggestions!!
 
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well, eating the shavings is not good... can you separate with a buddy and put on on papertowels (which are laid on newspaper. I usually keep my chickies on the paper towels for around three weeks (or unless I see them tearing them up and eating them which I have not seen them do as yet.
I am concerned about those shavings (since it seems to have developed a "taste " for them) will at a certain point build up and cause problems. Not only that but the extra fiber (which has no nutritional value) might have some influence on the balance of the nutritional elements of the starter
You really dont need to give mealworms at this age... far better to give a live culture yogurt and their plain ole boring starter...
Is your chick starter medicated?
 
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HI and thanks for the reply!

They were on paper towels but had started tearing them up and eating them after a few days so we switched to shavings. She doesn't really eat the dry shavings, just the wet ones, weirdly.

Her crop feels fine, as I have had crop problems in another bird I am hyper crop-sensititive and have been monitoring it !
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We only gave mealworms twice, very recently... certainly not a major part of the diet. She may have had three total.

I've been offering her a mash made with warm water and plain organic yogurt in the mornings, to try to get her to eat more. She likes it band fills her crop but is then more interested in perching on me, flying to me, exploring.... whereas the others just pig down the mash like there's no tomorrow ( I take her out and offer it in a seperate place first.... then when she gets bored I add a friend to get the feeding frenzy going, etc etc)

Chick starter is unmedicated, organic. I also thought, hmmm... maybe its stale.... so I bought a small bag of non-organic (I assume medicated but not sure) a few days ago to see if she was more interested in it. No difference though.

She seems to like to eat weird things. She's also pulling the baby fluff off of those faster-maturing chicke and eating it. I try to stop her when I see her doing that but I can't watch them 24/7.

What would the seperation do... just keep her from eating shavings? I could try it but I'm pretty sure she'd just eat paper instead.

It is weird because she has always had these watery poops (from day 1, way before shavings...) and yet she acts really fine!

Also: I did see one normal poop this morning. Totally normal.... maybe I should just watch her more? Sigh- I don't know.
 
Well I seperated her out with the little runty chick... they're on paper towels and so far they're not eating them. But they are bummed out, especially Fatime who's really active
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WE'll see how it goes for a day or so, I guess!

Stacey
 
I wouldn't sweat it too much, chicks do that kind of thing. If it is acting normal, it will eventually grow out of it. I have had chicks eat the shavings, and I don't sweat it too much, it never seems to hurt them. Unless it is really hurting the other chicks, I would leave them all together too. Chicks are like kids, they are all different, but it usually works out fine in the end. BTW, chicks do just fine with the plain old starter with a little chick grit mixed in, and clean water. I don't feel it is a good idea to try to feed them treats, as the starter is everything they need to keep them healthy. JMO though, good luck!
 
My chicks eat the shavings, too. Still doing it at 5/6 weeks. They aren't fancy chicks, so mine don't dip the shavings in the waterer first.
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They've eaten every bedding I've tried (except the concrete block.)
 
eating the shavings can cause damage to the gizzard...you will probably not notice anything but it is detrimental to their longterm health... this developmental stage is crucial to the birds longterm health and immune system capacity. Eating the wet shavings may avoid gizzard damage and the extra fiber will certainly upset the ratio of nutrients (and their absorption) , however, I understood the concern here is not simply the fact that this bird is eating shavings but:
She seems to like to eat weird things. She's also pulling the baby fluff off of those faster-maturing chicke and eating it. I try to stop her when I see her doing that but I can't watch them 24/7.

...and in addition their are some odd symptoms showing in the poos. the fact they are on organic (non-medicated) starter is to my mind a big clue to the problem. My advice is to give a good quality live culture yogurt free choice from day one of hatch and to their feed add AVIA CHARGE 2000 (you can purchase online from McMurray or Strombergs) as this product was specifically developed for certified organic production... it is a daily supplement (so not formulated at therapeutic levels as so many supplements are) > I urge you to do this as the info contained in the quote above indicates there is a nutritional issue... probably malabsorption of nutrients.​
 
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