Normal chick poop?

[jsgravel]

OK I have a bit of a weird questions but.... what is chick poop supposed to look like? I've had horses, donkeys, assorted other animals, but never birds. To me, loose manures are bad, but I know birds have obviously very different excretory processes. I have five week olds right now, just want to make sure everyone is doing ok. I see some firmer poop that sorta forms balls in the bedding, but using gloves today I removed a fresh dropping from the feeder and it was loose with a sorta melted chocolate consistency.

 

[neo71665]

Birds don't urinate like mammals. They pee and poop at the same time so it will be slightly runny compared to furry livestock. Kinda melted chocolate sounds normal to me. It gets any thinner then that your birds have problems.

 

[jsgravel]

Thank you!! I knew that they excreted both in the feces, but even so I wasn't sure if what I saw was normal or not. I appreciate it

 

[SilkieNation]

Here you go.

https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[CSAchook]

OK I have a bit of a weird questions but.... what is chick poop supposed to look like? I've had horses, donkeys, assorted other animals, but never birds. To me, loose manures are bad, but I know birds have obviously very different excretory processes. I have five week olds right now, just want to make sure everyone is doing ok. I see some firmer poop that sorta forms balls in the bedding, but using gloves today I removed a fresh dropping from the feeder and it was loose with a sorta melted chocolate consistency.

Chickens produce two types of poop. “Normal poop” (for lack of a better term) is semi formed, brownish, with white urates. The little poop balls you saw. Cecal poops are produced about every tenth poop. They are very loose and extremely smelly. The “melted chocolate” poop sounds like a cecal.

 

[jsgravel]

Oh interesting. What and why is the reason for the cecal poops?

 

[CSAchook]

Oh interesting. What and why is the reason for the cecal poops?

Cecal poops (unlike other fecal matter) are produced in specialized digestive organs called ceca (singular; cecum). Chickens have a pair of ceca attached to their colon. Below is a description of cecum function if you are interested.

 

[birdsrfun]

Here you go.

https://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=17568.0

Thanks for giving us the straight poop!