Sunflower seeds - a problem?

[JaeG]

I'm sorry. It's always difficult to lose a bird, especially when you've put so much effort into trying to save them. And it always seems to be your favourite.

 

[leighks]

I’m very sorry. I know you really tried to help her and you did the best you could. It’s never easy to lose a pet and it’s always very sad. It’s amazing how attached you get to these little birds! So sorry.

 

[Kiki]

Really bummed. We lost her. We tried (we includes all here on BYC’s who offered their expertise and encouragement). We woke up a couple mornings ago and she had died. Haven’t been thrilled about making that report here knowing everyone was hopeful. I really wanted to offer a report of a much happier outcome. I told my wife, “It’s just a chicken. Why does it have to hurt so bad.” I always called her my lap baby. That explains it. She is sorely missed.
Thank you all again for your help and encouragement.

I am sorry.

 

[aart]

Really bummed. We lost her. We tried (we includes all here on BYC’s who offered their expertise and encouragement). We woke up a couple mornings ago and she had died. Haven’t been thrilled about making that report here knowing everyone was hopeful. I really wanted to offer a report of a much happier outcome. I told my wife, “It’s just a chicken. Why does it have to hurt so bad.” I always called her my lap baby. That explains it. She is sorely missed.
Thank you all again for your help and encouragement.

Ack! Bummer, so sorry. It always stinks to lose an animal in ones care, but you did what you could, and learned good but hard lessons.

 

[peckpeckpeck]

Oh no! I'm so sorry!
You really tried & that's all you can do.
Big hugs!

 

[Mykidzrdogs]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT -NOT THE GUT...
I’ve no science to go on here -just some thoughts and deducing. Just something to consider maybe...
My wife is in the habit of throwing handfuls of unshelled sunflower seeds to the chickens in their coops when she is reloading the wildbird feeders. As I thought about it, I said to her that I wondered if there might be a potential problem with that. Her response was what I suppose most folks conclude when they feed their chickens sunflower seeds: “Wildbirds eat them all the time and a chicken is a bird. Therefore sunflower seeds should be as good for a chicken as it is for a Cardinal.”
But in coming to that conclusion what I think most folks don’t consider is the fact that wildbirds shell the sunflower seed first and DISCARD the non-nutritious fibrous indigestible shell. Wildbirds do NOT eat the shell of the sunflower seed. They crack it open, eat the seed, and drop the shell which lands in the discard pile below the feeder. Have you ever had a soggy-wet fibrous mass of indigestible chewed-up sunflower shells in your mouth? If so, you get the picture. My concern was that too much shell in the chicken’s crop(craw) or anywhere in the gut could cause problems with impaction or blockage if a mass of wet fibrous nondigestible shell collects there. We have a Silver-Laced Wyandotte hen that for the past 2 1/2 days has some type of mass or impaction in her crop that is very painful to her when it’s touched. And she is lethargic, obviously not feeling well and eating only little. I don’t know if it’s a mass of sunflower shells, an impaction of straw, a tumor, or what, but my wife had thrown a bunch of unshelled sunflower seeds into her coop the evening before she turned up feeling bad and she ate a bunch of them. It was the next morning that we found her obviously not feeling well and it was this afternoon (3rd day of feeing bad) when I discovered the lump in her crop that very obviously pains her when touched. I can hold her, pet her, touch her all over, but when I touch her crop, she starts a non-normal cackling and making a real effort to get away. It’s obviously painful and is the source of her illness.
Again, I don’t know what’s in her crop so can’t for-sure pin it on the sunflower shells, but I’ve worried for a long time about the potential for problems with the shells knowing that the wildbirds purposely discard them -and knowing from personal experience what a mass of soggy-wet fibrous sunflower shells feel like in my mouth after I’ve chewed on a handful of them for quite a while before I finally have to spit the fibrous wad out!
Just some food for thought (pun intended).

Yes, I have a chicken with sour crop in the medical ward right now. I believe that it is from feeding sunflower seeds. Ugh.

 

[KHJ]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT -NOT THE GUT...
I’ve no science to go on here -just some thoughts and deducing. Just something to consider maybe...
My wife is in the habit of throwing handfuls of unshelled sunflower seeds to the chickens in their coops when she is reloading the wildbird feeders. As I thought about it, I said to her that I wondered if there might be a potential problem with that. Her response was what I suppose most folks conclude when they feed their chickens sunflower seeds: “Wildbirds eat them all the time and a chicken is a bird. Therefore sunflower seeds should be as good for a chicken as it is for a Cardinal.”
But in coming to that conclusion what I think most folks don’t consider is the fact that wildbirds shell the sunflower seed first and DISCARD the non-nutritious fibrous indigestible shell. Wildbirds do NOT eat the shell of the sunflower seed. They crack it open, eat the seed, and drop the shell which lands in the discard pile below the feeder. Have you ever had a soggy-wet fibrous mass of indigestible chewed-up sunflower shells in your mouth? If so, you get the picture. My concern was that too much shell in the chicken’s crop(craw) or anywhere in the gut could cause problems with impaction or blockage if a mass of wet fibrous nondigestible shell collects there. We have a Silver-Laced Wyandotte hen that for the past 2 1/2 days has some type of mass or impaction in her crop that is very painful to her when it’s touched. And she is lethargic, obviously not feeling well and eating only little. I don’t know if it’s a mass of sunflower shells, an impaction of straw, a tumor, or what, but my wife had thrown a bunch of unshelled sunflower seeds into her coop the evening before she turned up feeling bad and she ate a bunch of them. It was the next morning that we found her obviously not feeling well and it was this afternoon (3rd day of feeing bad) when I discovered the lump in her crop that very obviously pains her when touched. I can hold her, pet her, touch her all over, but when I touch her crop, she starts a non-normal cackling and making a real effort to get away. It’s obviously painful and is the source of her illness.
Again, I don’t know what’s in her crop so can’t for-sure pin it on the sunflower shells, but I’ve worried for a long time about the potential for problems with the shells knowing that the wildbirds purposely discard them -and knowing from personal experience what a mass of soggy-wet fibrous sunflower shells feel like in my mouth after I’ve chewed on a handful of them for quite a while before I finally have to spit the fibrous wad out!
Just some food for thought (pun intended).

Today I lost a hen. I had thought she was egg bound, but no egg. Curiosity got the better of me after she passed. I found that she had a crop or gizzard full of grain, with a group of sunflower seeds blocking the movement of the other food into her digestive track. I have been feeding a mixed grain chook food, I think it was just bad luck for this hen.