Rooster or a sick chick?

[gottsegnet]

We got (way too many) chicks from the feed store two weeks ago and one of them started strutting around the pen and opening its mouth wide. It kind of looks like it is trying to crow, but then I was worried that maybe there is something wrong. It had just been eating and then began to strut, throw its head back and open its mouth wide, but no sound came out. If there's something wrong, how can I help it?

If it's a rooster, it will be our first one. This is only our second batch of chicks and we only got four the first time. Now we have 23!

 

[easttxchick]

If you could post a pic, that might help a lot.
Mine do something similiar to that, but not all the time.
You might want to do a search on gapeworm just to make sure it isn't something like that.

 

[gottsegnet]

AAHHH! Don't tell me that. I let the chicks out to clean their pen and they can get stuff like that? Do you happen to know how frequently they gape like that? I've only seen the bird do it that one time. None of the birds seem uncomfortable, they're all eating and drinking, and I've watched them for several minutes at a time throughout the day and haven't seen the behavior again.

I guess when my husband gets home, I can have him help me peek in there and see if there's anything in its throat. (EWWW!)

 

[tdgill]

wouldn't it be too young to have gapeworm? I think its possible it was just a reaction to eating....? I've seen mine do something like that too and they're fine. Never anything wrong with being alert though..

 

[gottsegnet]

tdgill-- I'm thinking maybe (hopefully.) When I looked it up, it looked like the incubation period is longer than their lives, let alone the first time they were let outside. It's a good thing to know, however. I'd never heard of it and we do have a lot of pheasants around here and we do pasture our poultry.

I haven't seen any of them do it since, so I'm hoping it was just a weird chicken thing.

 

[tdgill]