Green stuff left behind in food dish

[mumzee1432]

I am perplexed. Our neighbor's free-range chickens are still visiting daily. They all seem fine (aside from one of the roosters who has recently lost most of his tail feathers -- looks like molting/no signs of injury). For 5-6 days in a row, I've noticed green stuff left behind in the dish I leave out at the end of the day. I took a photo today. Normally, it looks more like a sprinkling of finely chopped turnip greens -- but very bright, tiny crumbs. Today it's more goopy and less evenly distributed. Everything I leave in the dish is usually wiped out by the morning round of chick-or-treating. Today, they ate all the chicken feed and oats and left just a few sunflower seed -- so ignore the seeds please. It can't be mold -- I put a clean dish out daily. I haven't changed anything as far as their food for months. Any ideas what's going on? They continue to chick or treat all day off and on. I'm only finding this green stuff when I get up and check the porch after their daybreak dash to our house.

 

[Debbie292d]

It honestly does look like spinach to me. Chickens don't upchuck like humans do, and if that was poop, that chicken that did it has serious issues.

Do you happen to have an indoor camera you could point out to the dish next time you set it down, or just try to watch them and see if you can see what's going on?

 

[mumzee1432]

It honestly does look like spinach to me. Chickens don't upchuck like humans do, and if that was poop, that chicken that did it has serious issues.

Do you happen to have an indoor camera you could point out to the dish next time you set it down, or just try to watch them and see if you can see what's going on?

I think I'm going to stake out the door to watch and try to what's going on. They make a mad dash to our porch as soon as the neighbor sets them free in the mornings. This only happens in the morning.It's all in the bowl -- not on the ground or porch. It took some time, but I've taught them not to poop on the porch. They haven't pooped on the porch in months. I'm hoping one of them hasn't taken to pooping in the dish bc that really is disturbing if it's poop. Most of the time, it looks more like ground up astroturf.