My chickens are 5 months old. They are eating well and appear very healthy. But over the last few days, the appearance of their sides is changing. They are not as full on the lower sides as they used to be. I tried to take photos but don't know if this will come across.
It is really apparent on the buffs and the white rock, but all of the chickens have it.
Do you see what I mean? I guess I'd describe it as their ribs are showing. There's like a line showing an indentation maybe four or five inches above their legs. I hadn't noticed this before a few days ago and it seems more pronounced every day. Maybe this is normal as they near maturity?
Is this normal?
Well, I just went thru some of the posts here and looked at pics of your chickens and I see they all have this 'line.' Okay, so I guess that's normal.
The main reason I was concerned is because my chickens have greatly reduced the amount of water they're drinking. I was worried the nipples on the waterers were clogged so we cleaned them out really well and they are working fine. As a further precaution, I put a big tub of water in their coop yesterday in case for whatever reason they had decided they didn't like their waterers. (Which they have been drinking out of just fine for months now.) I was thinking they might be dehydrated and would all rush over to drink from this big tub of water. But they basically ignored it!
Do they cut down on drinking water for some reason as they get older, if they're going to molt, or ???
I really don't feel like having to worry about them this week, there's too much else to do, so someone set my mind at ease!
Could it be that they are drinking less because it is cooler? I have never monitered my chickens' drinking so I really don't know. In any event, I wouldn't worry. Had they been thirsty they would have drunk from the tub.
My donks sure drink less in the cool weather.
That makes sense. For a while tho, we couldn't keep the water flowing fast enough, so they're really slowed down a LOT!