Shugercube
Songster
Hope it’s ok to start a separate thread for this. My roo has been sick, and in one of my conversations, @casportpony showed me a way to feel for a healthy weight. Which my roo certainly is underweight, even though he *looks* fine size-wise.
So today I decide I’m going to check everyone out. I wasn’t able to grab everyone, I’ll have to go out after dark and feel everyone else. But I was able to handle maybe half, and every single one I checked had a very prominent keel, pinch-able and with very little “meat” around it. They’re all acting normally, and seem otherwise healthy. They all *look* normal to me.
They are all young- my oldest 2 will be 20 weeks exactly this Friday (no eggs yet!), and my youngest that live outside (separately from the big birds) are about 5 weeks. But even my young ones seem too bony.
I feed the younger ones that are still separated an 18% starter crumble, and everyone else gets an 18% all-flock pellet. The feed is available 24/7. There are crushed eggshells available for the girls if/when they need them. I occasionally offer watermelon when it’s very hot out, and then every now and then they will get “treats” of mealworms, fresh veggies (lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, squashes, etc) but that’s rare, not even once a week. They do free range for a few hours most days, but not every day.
Their poops all look normal right now, but most of the cecal poop I see is on the runnier side and is very orangey. On the hotter days they do have the more watery poop, but it hasn’t been overly hot the past several days and they have just normal everyday poop. No blood, no worms, or anything unusual that I can tell.
Is it possible they’re ALL underweight like that? Am I just very bad at feeling them out? Is it maybe just that they’re still young and not done growing?
If something does sound off, What should be the first thing to try to rule out? Worms?
To me, everyone I felt today seems like either a 1 or a 2 on this chart:
So today I decide I’m going to check everyone out. I wasn’t able to grab everyone, I’ll have to go out after dark and feel everyone else. But I was able to handle maybe half, and every single one I checked had a very prominent keel, pinch-able and with very little “meat” around it. They’re all acting normally, and seem otherwise healthy. They all *look* normal to me.
They are all young- my oldest 2 will be 20 weeks exactly this Friday (no eggs yet!), and my youngest that live outside (separately from the big birds) are about 5 weeks. But even my young ones seem too bony.
I feed the younger ones that are still separated an 18% starter crumble, and everyone else gets an 18% all-flock pellet. The feed is available 24/7. There are crushed eggshells available for the girls if/when they need them. I occasionally offer watermelon when it’s very hot out, and then every now and then they will get “treats” of mealworms, fresh veggies (lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, squashes, etc) but that’s rare, not even once a week. They do free range for a few hours most days, but not every day.
Their poops all look normal right now, but most of the cecal poop I see is on the runnier side and is very orangey. On the hotter days they do have the more watery poop, but it hasn’t been overly hot the past several days and they have just normal everyday poop. No blood, no worms, or anything unusual that I can tell.
Is it possible they’re ALL underweight like that? Am I just very bad at feeling them out? Is it maybe just that they’re still young and not done growing?
If something does sound off, What should be the first thing to try to rule out? Worms?
To me, everyone I felt today seems like either a 1 or a 2 on this chart:
