cassandrapettersson
Emu obsessed
I feel like I'm always posting threads for help with unwell birds, but here we go again.
I do volunteer work at a rescue, and this July we had a whooping 97 chickens rescued. Their background being an old man that hatched too many birds while he was unwell, and eventually died with 200-300 birds, no one knew for a while.. My boss told me she'd never been in such an anomiacic coop before, they were cramped and all stepping over other dead birds.
I took home 8 ducks and 11 chickens, 5 of which I gave to my neighbourly friend per request. We obviously wanted to get them out of the facility as quick as possible, and no one says no to free chickens, do they?
**My concern is about this Sussex hen I gave to my neighbour. I did a health check on her chickens yesterday because she asked and I don't think I've ever felt bones stick out in the ways her did.
I touched her crop, and I felt the bone VERY clearly, like nothing I've ever felt before.
She feeds her chickens well, honestly I would call her chickens more spoiled than mine. They get grains as their main diet, though I know people have different opinions about that,, but feed is expeennsiivee... I fully understand her when it comes to that. Of course they don't only get grains, she has a beautiful garden and gives them a bunch of fruit, vegetables, berries- and the typical leftovers.
Which is so confusing to me! This Sussex loves food, I would too if i was THAT malnourished honestly.. But she eats, like she eats a lot! I know she's being well fed, and eats her fair share. So this whole thing is so confusing to me?
The only reason I could come up with while doing the health check was.. Maybe she's struggling to eat enough while growing at this rapid speed??.. Like.. Teenagers?
She is a young hen, she doesn't lay eggs yet and is growing like a weed, she's so much bigger than when I first got her.. It's insane.
I'm probably wrong, like really wrong but it's the only thing I could come up with- The 2nd thing could be that the older hens, the hens she had before these are bullying them and not letting them eat. But even so, she spreads out the feed to different sides of the coop + run so they all get to eat without the distrubance of the others.
I'm writing WAAYY to much,, I'm just asking for help, what do I do? What could it be? Etc etc.. I'm just speechless because I've never encountered this before.
Side note, she wasn't like this when I gave her to my neighbour, she was a healthy weight))
I do volunteer work at a rescue, and this July we had a whooping 97 chickens rescued. Their background being an old man that hatched too many birds while he was unwell, and eventually died with 200-300 birds, no one knew for a while.. My boss told me she'd never been in such an anomiacic coop before, they were cramped and all stepping over other dead birds.
I took home 8 ducks and 11 chickens, 5 of which I gave to my neighbourly friend per request. We obviously wanted to get them out of the facility as quick as possible, and no one says no to free chickens, do they?
**My concern is about this Sussex hen I gave to my neighbour. I did a health check on her chickens yesterday because she asked and I don't think I've ever felt bones stick out in the ways her did.
I touched her crop, and I felt the bone VERY clearly, like nothing I've ever felt before.
She feeds her chickens well, honestly I would call her chickens more spoiled than mine. They get grains as their main diet, though I know people have different opinions about that,, but feed is expeennsiivee... I fully understand her when it comes to that. Of course they don't only get grains, she has a beautiful garden and gives them a bunch of fruit, vegetables, berries- and the typical leftovers.
Which is so confusing to me! This Sussex loves food, I would too if i was THAT malnourished honestly.. But she eats, like she eats a lot! I know she's being well fed, and eats her fair share. So this whole thing is so confusing to me?
The only reason I could come up with while doing the health check was.. Maybe she's struggling to eat enough while growing at this rapid speed??.. Like.. Teenagers?
She is a young hen, she doesn't lay eggs yet and is growing like a weed, she's so much bigger than when I first got her.. It's insane.
I'm probably wrong, like really wrong but it's the only thing I could come up with- The 2nd thing could be that the older hens, the hens she had before these are bullying them and not letting them eat. But even so, she spreads out the feed to different sides of the coop + run so they all get to eat without the distrubance of the others.
I'm writing WAAYY to much,, I'm just asking for help, what do I do? What could it be? Etc etc.. I'm just speechless because I've never encountered this before.
Side note, she wasn't like this when I gave her to my neighbour, she was a healthy weight))
