Captain Morgan.
These four were raised together from just a few days old. The moment Captain (my wheaten olive egger) started growing feathers on his feet, I feared the worst—my last rooster with feathered feet was hot in my climate. I knew it was a gamble, but I love the breed so much that I really wanted a nice olive egger boy in the mix.
Anyway—when they’re moving around, I notice the issue less. But since they’re still indoors most of the day and only get a few hours outside, I’m seeing a lot of open-mouth breathing even when he’s just relaxing on the sofa.
What’s odd is that as soon as he starts running, he suddenly seems completely fine.
- 6 weeks old
- No, I don’t have a dusty home per say, and none of the other chicks show this trait. I’ve noticed a bit of sneezing here and there, but nothing dramatic.
- Bedding is changed daily.
- Hyper, active.
- No discharge.
- They spend 2-3 hours outside, 2 hours in the living room, and spend the rest in their enclosure (open air dog kennel with fresh veggies, fruit, dustbath, perches, fresh clippings- spoiled... I check on them every 30 minutes).
- I thought about stress triggers because Kraken- is well- a bit intense. I swear she thinks she is a human/parrot morph and is a dominant female? (chest bumping central). So stress? and also jealousy? kraken will sit on the back of the sofa and watch me type- but Captain takes offense to it-
- It’s perplexing. I’m debating whether to swab and treat for bacterial or fungal causes because I’m wracking my brain at this point- but he is still so young and I like to only swab an empty crop, but I like to keep them well fed as they are growing so fast.
