Sneezing Chicks!

[HappyClucker7]

It does sound like the sneezing is from eating the feed - what do you feed crumbles?
You could try offering wet feed to see if you notice a decrease in the sneezing - sort of like an experiment to really see if feed/dust is the cause or something else is.

An occasional sneeze during eating I would say is normal.

Okay, I can definitely try that. I'll let you know if anything changes.

 

[Eggcessive]

What brand of feed are you using? I have found that Purina Rock Raiser crumbles are a bit less dusty than some brands. Every bag is different though. Dumor makes a 17% all flock feed that my TSC now carries (and costs a dollar more than PFR,) and it was less dusty than some of the other Dumor feeds. As @Wyorp Rock posted, adding a little water to a small amount of feed will help the dust problem, as long as you keep it fresh. Hopefully, it is not a respiratory illness, but just a feed issue.

 

[HappyClucker7]

What brand of feed are you using? I have found that Purina Rock Raiser crumbles are a bit less dusty than some brands. Every bag is different though. Dumor makes a 17% all flock feed that my TSC now carries (and costs a dollar more than PFR,) and it was less dusty than some of the other Dumor feeds. As @Wyorp Rock posted, adding a little water to a small amount of feed will help the dust problem, as long as you keep it fresh. Hopefully, it is not a respiratory illness, but just a feed issue.

I'm using the Nutrena Chick grower feed. It relatively dusty, but less than the first food they had, which came from a farm about an hour from my house. They've had the same food for almost 4 months now, so I'm not convinced that's the problem, but I'm really hoping it is. I really don't want them to be sick.
I also thought of something else. The weather is changing here, and there is a lot of temperature fluctuation (one day hot, one day cold). Since the chicks are relatively young (they hatched pretty late in the year), do you think the temperature might be affecting them? If this is what's causing the sneezing, do you think they'll just get over it? Or should I give them something to help them?

 

[Eggcessive]

I would just keep watching them for any changes or new symptoms.

 

[HappyClucker7]

I would just keep watching them for any changes or new symptoms.

Okay, I will.

 

[HappyClucker7]

Okay, so two days ago I thought of something else that might be causing the sneezing. Even though these chicks are 4 months old, they still sleep in the nest box with their mom. Every night, they try to push their heads under her feathers, so their faces are right up against the shavings. I thought maybe the shavings are dusty, so I took them all out. They were very dusty! Much more than I expected. So, I put new shavings in, and yesterday there was no sneezing at all!