ok I read lots of other posters pasty butt questions, so I know how to go about removing it. Warm water, washcloth, patience, gentle, etc. That is not the question.
I have a dozen chicks 4 days old currently housed in a 30gal plastic storage tote. 3 of them seem to have some kind of poo issue on their backside. Is "pasty butt" really just poop stuck in the vent and the surrounding down? or is it some kind of actual paste substance they secrete from yolk digesting I think of newborn humans first poops and how that black-tar meconium is not the same as poop from food/milk. One of them just had a little bit of a dirty backside, but the other 2 had this poop "plug" stuck in their butt. they put up a squirmy fight but I got them washed up. It took a good while to soften the dry poo enough to wipe it off since i didnt want to hurt them pulling their fuzz or skin.
So.....
Is that pasty butt everyone speaks of?
what causes it?
how can i prevent it from coming back?
can i put some kind of greasy something in their food (olive oil?) to help it slide out? or some kind of greasy substance on their butt to prevent it from sticking? I have some evoo and I also have some leftover nipple balm - lanolin based, not petro. - from nursing my son. Maybe a drop of oil in the food, and a q-tip of balm on their bum? Im not gonna do it till I get someones approval....
how about grit? I have some little bitty chick grit but they have not had any yet
Other relevant things everyone wanted to know in pasty butt posts:
they have plenty of room (for now at least) in the makeshift brooder box they are in
they are drinking plain water (its city h2o so its chlorinated, but no additives whatsoever that I put in)
they are eating nothing but medicated chick crumbles-no grit yet. The lady at the hatchery told me they dont need it till they are 3-4wks old and start getting something else besides chick crumbs
they are on paper towels covered in pine shaving
the bulb is white in the day and red at night
I picked them up the day they hatched from Meyer. They were NOT shipped in the mail. I drove them home in the good 'ol truck. Its under a 10min drive.
No thermometer in the brooder, but they seem to be doing fine temp wise. They are in my laundry room which also has the back door and no heat. I have a space heater in there, and its pretty warm in the room. They dont seem to huddle under the light freezing and they arent avoiding it altogether either. I have the light positioned so it shines in 1/2 the box and not too much in the other side. that way theres a warm spot and a cooler spot to escape the heat if they get too warm. Other than the occasional draft from going out the door, or letting the dog in/out...the temp is good as far as I can tell.
I have a dozen chicks 4 days old currently housed in a 30gal plastic storage tote. 3 of them seem to have some kind of poo issue on their backside. Is "pasty butt" really just poop stuck in the vent and the surrounding down? or is it some kind of actual paste substance they secrete from yolk digesting I think of newborn humans first poops and how that black-tar meconium is not the same as poop from food/milk. One of them just had a little bit of a dirty backside, but the other 2 had this poop "plug" stuck in their butt. they put up a squirmy fight but I got them washed up. It took a good while to soften the dry poo enough to wipe it off since i didnt want to hurt them pulling their fuzz or skin.
So.....
Is that pasty butt everyone speaks of?
what causes it?
how can i prevent it from coming back?
can i put some kind of greasy something in their food (olive oil?) to help it slide out? or some kind of greasy substance on their butt to prevent it from sticking? I have some evoo and I also have some leftover nipple balm - lanolin based, not petro. - from nursing my son. Maybe a drop of oil in the food, and a q-tip of balm on their bum? Im not gonna do it till I get someones approval....
how about grit? I have some little bitty chick grit but they have not had any yet
Other relevant things everyone wanted to know in pasty butt posts:
they have plenty of room (for now at least) in the makeshift brooder box they are in
they are drinking plain water (its city h2o so its chlorinated, but no additives whatsoever that I put in)
they are eating nothing but medicated chick crumbles-no grit yet. The lady at the hatchery told me they dont need it till they are 3-4wks old and start getting something else besides chick crumbs
they are on paper towels covered in pine shaving
the bulb is white in the day and red at night
I picked them up the day they hatched from Meyer. They were NOT shipped in the mail. I drove them home in the good 'ol truck. Its under a 10min drive.
No thermometer in the brooder, but they seem to be doing fine temp wise. They are in my laundry room which also has the back door and no heat. I have a space heater in there, and its pretty warm in the room. They dont seem to huddle under the light freezing and they arent avoiding it altogether either. I have the light positioned so it shines in 1/2 the box and not too much in the other side. that way theres a warm spot and a cooler spot to escape the heat if they get too warm. Other than the occasional draft from going out the door, or letting the dog in/out...the temp is good as far as I can tell.
As far as I can tell, it's nothing that you have done to them to cause this. I had three "batches" of chicks (2 of the groups came from Meyers too. We drove them 1 hour home in our dandy ol' truck
) Only one of the groups got pasty butt, and we didn't care for them any different than the other two groups...it just happens. (although I think stress can aggravate it). 
