Reason for chick death?

[Kraemer7]

Hi! This morning I found one of my 5 week chicks dead. There was no blood and the other 19 seem fine. When I checked the coop last night around 9:30 everyone was fine. Thoughts? Probably a fluke but I want to do my research to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Could she have eaten something funny? I gave them a watermelon rind for the first time yesterday.

 

[Weeg]

Was its crop enlarged or hard? What about around its vent, was there any poop stuck there? What is your brooder setup? Bedding, heat source, brooder, location. What do you feed them including treats? What about poop, do you see any blood, diareah, or odd looking poops? Have they been outside?
I hear that a lot, and honestly, it kind of frustrates me, fluke.

Spoiler: Short rant

Chicks don't just die because sometimes they die and its a fluke. I think a lot of people think that, and portray that information. Yes, sometimes you get weak chicks from hatch that don't make it. That is most commonly caused by incubation issues or similar, there for not a fluke. Sometimes young chicks pass, but that can be caused by brooder setup, or "learning curbs," not "just a fluke". Especially in older chicks, they're stronger and should be able to tolerate more mistakes and mishaps. Young chicks are very fragile, and its not uncommon to lose them. Some chicks have a perfect hatch, but just fail to thrive. That is not our fault, but also isn't "common" per say. They are dependent on us, so our doing can cause things like this to happen. I hope I don't sound like I'm blaming you, or come off as rude, just wanted to state that. I hope I'm able to help you find out what happened to your chick.

 

[Kraemer7]

Was its crop enlarged or hard? What about around its vent, was there any poop stuck there? What is your brooder setup? Bedding, heat source, brooder, location. What do you feed them including treats? What about poop, do you see any blood, diareah, or odd looking poops? Have they been outside?
I hear that a lot, and honestly, it kind of frustrates me, fluke.

Spoiler: Short rant

Chicks don't just die because sometimes they die and its a fluke. I think a lot of people think that, and portray that information. Yes, sometimes you get weak chicks from hatch that don't make it. That is most commonly caused by incubation issues or similar, there for not a fluke. Sometimes young chicks pass, but that can be caused by brooder setup, or "learning curbs," not "just a fluke". Especially in older chicks, they're stronger and should be able to tolerate more mistakes and mishaps. Young chicks are very fragile, and its not uncommon to lose them. Some chicks have a perfect hatch, but just fail to thrive. That is not our fault, but also isn't "common" per say. They are dependent on us, so our doing can cause things like this to happen. I hope I don't sound like I'm blaming you, or come off as rude, just wanted to state that. I hope I'm able to help you find out what happened to your chick.

I’m trying to figure out what happened- this is not my first group of chicks, and they’ve all been doing fine with their setup. They have a large area with 2 heater plates at various heights. They eat organic chick starter - no treats except for the 1 piece of watermelon yesterday. They had just gone outside for the first time on Thursday (I’m in the northeast and it has been chilly).
I didn’t notice anything abnormal. There are 19 other chicks between 2-6 weeks that are all doing ok otherwise.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Wood shavings?
My go to answer.

 

[Kraemer7]

All my birds have been in pine shavings for the past year. These chicks have been on them since we got her as a day old. Are they bad?

 

[rayrose]

I don't thinking feeding treats to 5 week old chicks is a
good thing. I only feed mine starter grower and nothing else.
If you let them outside, it may have eaten something along with the
melon rind and probably had no grit to digest it.

 

[Weeg]

I’m trying to figure out what happened- this is not my first group of chicks, and they’ve all been doing fine with their setup. They have a large area with 2 heater plates at various heights. They eat organic chick starter - no treats except for the 1 piece of watermelon yesterday. They had just gone outside for the first time on Thursday (I’m in the northeast and it has been chilly).
I didn’t notice anything abnormal. There are 19 other chicks between 2-6 weeks that are all doing ok otherwise.

What about crop? Did you notice if the crop was large or hard when it died? Did it visually look larger than the other chicks crops? Wondering if it could have gotten an impacted crop from the watermelon rind or something else.

 

[Kraemer7]

I don't thinking feeding treats to 5 week old chicks is a
good thing. I only feed mine starter grower and nothing else.
If you let them outside, it may eaten something along with the
melon rind and probably had no grit to digest it.

Certainly possible- although they have access to grit. It was also a tiny sliver of watermelon to be shared by 20 chicks. I’m very picky about what i feed them and offered no treats with the exception of this one thing. And I did a Google search to see if was okay. Bummer if it caused it. Didn’t notice her crop being enlarged but I’ll take a closer look later.