Worms, and Chick poop

[deb004]

Hi I'm wondering how you can tell if your chicks have worms. I read in a book that their poop should be brown with a white tip. In the 4 week old chick her poops are great. I have a 3 week old sometimes her poops are good, but then other times theres this light brown watery with it. The 2 week old is fine but the 1 week old seems to have light brown quishy poops. Could that be worms or something else?

 

[DTchickens]

I think by the ages of your chicks it is unlikely they have worms; don't expect just because droppings aren't brown with a white tip they're not "right". There are a large range of chicken droppings, see here: http://pluckandfeather.com/chicken-poo-chart-graphic.html

Birds usually don't get worms unless they are on the ground, as that is how they come in contact with the eggs either on the ground or in a insect such as grasshoppers and so on. I personally worm about twice a year or so, unless I feel it is otherwise needed; doesn't matter if they need it or not as they can have worms and it not be apparent.

At this stag, important things to look at would be activity, feathering, and growth. All three can key into how healthy they are, but usually as long as they are given warmth, water, and some chick feed 24/7 (or at least multiple times throughout the day) they're fine- or so it has been for me the past 18 years.

God bless,
Daniel.

 

[deb004]

Hi Daniel,

Thankyou so much for responding to this and providing the link. That was really helpful, I've actually saved the chart. Being a new carer of baby chicks I want to make sure they're doing ok. Thank you again. I havent't seen any of those worm in the pictures either, so I'm relieved too. Thank you again

Debbie

 

[DTchickens]

Anytime Debbie; if you have any more questions feel free to PM me some time. I'm a tad slow to respond sometimes, but normally I will get around to answering any question you have assuming I know the answer- if I don't know it I could probably find it. Books are a great source of information sometimes, but there is also a lot of misinformation in books at times, or at least a lot of things that are overly exaggerated.

God bless,
Daniel.