Loose stool 1 chick

[SamIamNam786]

Hi there. I have 3 EE chicks, said to be almost 5 weeks, one looks relatively larger, one looks medium sized, and one is the smallest of the group.
They all are eating purina chick feed.
They get plenty of play time outside of their cage which is how we noticed that the largest one has frequent soft stools, brownish as opposed to green.
The other two have poop that look similar to what my parrot emits.
The largest chick does seem to hog the food feeder the most too. Could she be overeating?

Could the smallest be not eating enough?

 

[DLA]

Maybe add another feeder on the other side of the enclosure you're keeping them in so everyone gets a chance to eat if one is hogging the feeder. If that big one is still pushing the others out from both feeders then you could put a wire barrier up so they can still see each other and interact but the smaller ones get time at their own feeder.

 

[SamIamNam786]

Now that I'm reading through threads, why do other 4 week old chicks look much larger than mine?

 

[DLA]

hard to say without knowing the exact details of their breeding. maybe someone else that has raised a lot of easter eggers could chime in and answer that. I can't see the whole cage in the picture but from what I can see it doesn't look like it will be big enough for them for much longer. a larger area with two feeders and waterers might stop one from bullying the others and ensure they're all getting enough to eat.

 

[SamIamNam786]

hard to say without knowing the exact details of their breeding. maybe someone else that has raised a lot of easter eggers could chime in and answer that. I can't see the whole cage in the picture but from what I can see it doesn't look like it will be big enough for them for much longer. a larger area with two feeders and waterers might stop one from bullying the others and ensure they're all getting enough to eat.

Thank you for your reply. Here's the current size set up for the 3 chickies. We are preparing the coop and run and should be up by the weekend. Chickies will be 5 weeks by then. Night temps will be 60-65 and day temp around 80. Would it be OK to transfer them outside at this age? Or maybe in another week?

 

[DLA]

The general rule for full time outside is when they have no more chick fluff and have their feathers. These look to still have some fluff so night temps might get a little chilly, generally it should be above 75 F for this age I think. During the day should be fine to be outside. Some people put them out earlier but considering two of them are smaller maybe nights inside for another week to be safe.