What does healthy chicken poo look like?

[gailaus2]

Just got 3 golden comets hens..our first chickens. They are fed crumbles, scratch and some table scraps ( cantelope rind, pasta and some bread). Is their poo supposed to be firm or loose and what color or does it matter?

We were told they were laying eggs before daylight savings time kicked in. I just want to make sure we are doing everything right for the, they are so friendly

 

[jamesnoldsr]

You know, maybe I'm not as attentive as I should be, but I don't really worry about what their poop looks like if they are all acting healthy and alert and doing the things chickens should do. I feed lots of stuff from the kitchen (for Christmas the girls got the turkey carcass) bread, cottage cheese, spaghetti noodles, greens etc. I can't believe their poop would stay firm and well formed through all of that. I myself wouldn't worry about it unless things go very wrong, like bloody stools or the complete lack of stool. JMO

 

[Imp]

Here's the famous poop page.

Hope it answers your question.

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

Imp

 

[gailaus2]

Thank you

 

[cva34]

Quote:
INTERESTING THX ...cva34

 

[Me & Jack]

Love the poop page! Before finding that I used to thing 90% of my chickens were dying 'cause their poop never looked the same twice and always looked "abnormal". (Still not sure I could definitively say when the poop isn't looking right, though.)

 

[galanie]

One thing about it. No matter what it looks like, it always pretty much looks like chicken poo!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Every 8 poos or so there is a caecal poo which is runny. The ones in between should have some form to them. You will see some white (urates). You will see shed intestinal lining that looks like mushy blood (but not liquid blood) occasionally.

If they have worms you might see yellow/foamy/dark mustard color poo and you may or may not see worms in the poo.

If they have diarrhea you might see water squirting out of them, or green liquid diarrhea (means they aren't eating much). You can see this with generic illness and worms too.

If they have liquid blood it might be coccidiosis.

If they have black tarry stools it might be old blood.

If they have ALL white stools it might be disease- can't remember which one (s).

If they have undigested food it might be that they need grit.

If you see a strange poo it is a good thing to search BYC for old threads on the subject, and that's the wisest thing I've said!