Using Brown Sugar instead-No Pasty Butts

[JustAChickenLittle&More]

Just wanted to let the chicken lovers know that after my babies hatched last week, I usually put sugar in their water for the first 3 or 4 days. Well...as fate would have it I had the flu and ran out. But...I did have some brown sugar. So I used the brown sugar instead, and not one baby chick got pasty butt. Not One! From now on I am going to use Brown Sugar instead of white.

 

[Tala]

I never put anything in their water.

I give my chicks grit (sand sized) and I rarely EVER have pasty butts.

Not sure what the magic cause or solution is, seems like several things work for different people

so maybe someone will find the brown sugar helpful. I'd be kinda afraid it would give them the runs, so who knew?

 

[Mahonri]

I will try the brown sugar in January! I have plenty!

 

[gryeyes]

Interestingly, (to me), I have had one solo, single chick with pasty butt out of the fifty-some i've hatched. And it was a late, slow hatcher who was shrink-wrapped.

I think it's a stress related issue. Shipped and feed store chicks - who have just been shipped to a different location - go through so much! While my hatched chicks go from the 'bator to the brooder, from one end of the house to the other. Carried in my hands.

 

[lostsoulhelpmejebus]

I have always used electrolytes and baby vitamins in the water for the 1st month or so, I also add a bit of green food coloring (recommended by TheOneMuch) which seems to be an attractant and gets them off and drinking very easily. I have never used sugar...what purpose does it serve?

I hatch my own but still occasionally get a pasty butt, just stand them in a plastic disposable cup with enough warm water to cover the afflicted area then use a cotton swab to wipe it off once sufficiently softened. Kind of funny, the little ones will fall asleep standing up in the warm water, must be very soothing to them?

Once dried completely, I usually just put some A&D ointment around and slightly below the chute and that seems to repel any future incidents.

 

[gritsar]

I use nothing in the water. With the batch I got in 2007 I had like 3 mild cases of pasty butt - out of 23 chicks. With this years chicks, I had zero cases of it - with 14 shipped chicks and 19 broiler chicks.