Starving chick

[CartierChicken]

I have a chick that is just over a week old. He shares a crate with a quail the same age. At night time, the chicken goes crazy. He is chirping so loudly and bouncing back and forth in the crate. When he sees me enter the room his cries are more urgent. So yesterday I picked him up to try and figure out what was wrong. I felt his crop, to make sure it was not hard, but then I noticed it was empty. He had plenty of chick crumble. I know he eats it, as I have seen him do it before. So I ended up topping him off with a few meal worms and some grain bread. He seem satisfied and went to sleep. I checked the crop on the quail and it was full.

So tonight, the chick is back to crazy peeping. His crop is empty again. I have seen him eat and poo today. So I loaded him up again on worms. What I want to know is, can there be something wrong, or is he just working me for the meal worms?

 

[Bizzybirdy]

Maybe the quail is keeping him from eating?? Try putting him by himself.

 

[CartierChicken]

No, he is almost 3 times the size of the quail. He can walk up to the bowl anytime. There is food in it now, and he is chirping like mad now. I have already given him 3 meal worms and bread crumbs. His bowl is full of chick mash. The quail is sleeping, or at least trying to.

 

[CartierChicken]

Ok, now his crop is full, but he is still chirping like crazy. When I enter, he calms down, when I leave he goes mad. I wish I knew what he wanted.

 

[misterkrista]

We had a chick who did the same thing. About a week old, chirped like crazy constantly, and didn't seem to be eating enough. Her crop was always empty, but looked like she was eating sometimes and definitely drinking and pooping. Then she started to look lethargic all the time. We finally started force feeding her for awhile and separated her from the others. I still don't know what was wrong. We treated for cocci just in case. Gradually we switched from force feeding her to offering her extra treats separately from the others. Eventually she was fine, although she feathered out about a week later then the rest of our chicks and is still significantly smaller. She's now over 5 weeks and seems healthy.