Full "Chests" - what am I supposed to do?

[paceysgl5]

So yesterday I noticed one of my chicks had quite the full chest on her right side. I thought it was a huge tumor, until I noticed the other chicks had it too. At the time we had a chick starter/grower (says 1 day-10 weeks) as their feed, we've since changed it to chick starter and also given them Chick Grit (also 1 day- 10 weeks).

Is this normal, or did we royally screw up by giving them too large of food to start with? Are they going to be okay? They all seem perfectly healthy, but that pouch worries me. I'm not up on my chick biology though, maybe this is normal...

Thanks

 

[nivtup]

It is just a full crop. They are well fed.

 

[Highlander]

That is their crops you are seeing full of food. That is where food is stored before it goes through the digestion process and is perfectly normal. they should be empty in the morning and full of food by evening, nothing to worry about.

 

[domino7]

That's their crop. It's full of food. Not a problem at all.

 

[paceysgl5]

Wow thanks for the quick replies. Great I will have to look at a few closely tonight and then compare to tomorrow morning to see. PHEW!

 

[gryeyes]

With my first chicks, I had one that gorged on food but I didn't realize that at the time, and I thought "OMG it has a tumor!" Folks here on BYC reassured me. Said, bet it's gone in the morning. If not, come back here and we'll help you.

It was gone in the morning, all "digested." Whew!

VERY normal.

 

[write2caroline]

tuck her in and kiss her good night! My girls look like they have eaten softballs most days! Amazing how much they eat!
Caroline

 

[Gypsy07]

Haha! You just have piggy chicks. BTW if you use a heat lamp and there's a light on the chicks all night, it probably won't be gone in the morning, cause they'll keep eating all through the night. It'll only go down if you have a heat source that doesn't also light up the brooder and they all go to sleep at night.

 

[dianaross77]

I thought the same thing just a week ago with my first chicks. It took me a minute to sit and figure it out!

 

[babyrnlc]

Quote:
I was gonna say something like this. I have a red light, but my little piggies eat about every two hours! They are almost 2 weeks old. In fact, it is 5:30 almost 6 and I am awake because I heard loud cheaping. Apparently the food ran out over night and they were not to happy about it and woke me up to feed them. They are in the living room and I could hear it from my room!