Tough little chick- "bit" me!

[augustwest]

We got 6 little chicks on Friday- 4 EE and 2 bramas (I don't know if they are buff or light- DH forgot to ask). One of the little bramas has a poop butt and I have been cleaning her up twice a day. No big deal, but I just soak off the dingleberry with a warm wet paper towel. These guys are all pretty nervous around us- they are 8 days old today.

This am, I picked up the poopy butt and she latched on to my finger! Tough little thing! She let go and them got me again, too. Of course it didn't hurt, but I was pretty impressed with her. I am very gentle with her when I am soaking her butt, but clearly she'd rather not be messed with. We've had dozens of chickens and that's never happened.

Anyhow, thought I'd share my warrior chick story.

 

[schellie69]

Cute story you might try putting some olive oil on her backside might help things not stick.

 

[augustwest]

OMG, what a great idea! She's lost some fluff back there- so the oil is a perfect solution. Thanks!

 

[schellie69]

You are welcome read that when researching pasty butt. It seems to work really well.

 

[Sassafras]

I used a tiny dab of vaseline and it worked great too.

 

[augustwest]

I never even thought to research it. I guess I thought that pasty butt was more, well.... pasty! Like flat, gooey, cow patty thing? This is a hard deposit that doesn't really block the hole. It just sits underneath it and acts like a shelf for the next deposit. This happened to our button quail, too.

I never thought about it before- thanks BYC!

 

[Nicole01]

Well, hopefully this is just a fluke. Hopefully your chick won't grow up to be a biter. I heard it hurts like heck to be pecked by a chicken.

 

[schellie69]

Quote:
Your welcome. That is what I say your find answers to questions you never thought to ask

 

[HHandbasket]

Hehehe you should name your little warrior chick Xena.

 

[WhySayWhat]

When I got my chicks, I had a blood blister near the palm of my hand on my index finger. My 2 SLW chicks ignored the spot completely, but my little BR chick...she was a different story! At first she only lightly pecked at the spot, but as the visits occured and the days past, she got more and more vicious with the spot on my finger! She got to the point where she would open wide, bite down, and then shake her head back and forth trying to rip it off! It really hurt! They're 2 weeks old now, so they aren't "big" birds yet...I can only imagine the damage she could have done if she were full grown, lol. The spot finally healed and she went back to not even noticing my hand unless I have food in it, lol.

My BR also had "poopy butt", not really pasty butt as I consider pasty butt when it blocks things...this was more of a spot that poo would catch on half an inch or so below her vent. I tried soaking it, but that din't really work. The first time I saw it, it pulled it off, but felt really bad because it pulled out a little fluff too (not that you could tell by looking). The other day I finally had had enough of looking at it and cut it out with a pair of scissors. I just cut through the fluff as close to the poo (hard as a rock) as I could get. She hasn't had an issue with it since, I believe that her fluff was just "in the way" and since I basically trimmed the fluff back 1/8", it isn't getting caught anymore!