Over month ago i brought 6 baby chickens from the feed store in town .. raised them and now have put them in the cage with my pet rooster, they have been getting along fine .. tho im sure he cant wait for future 'ladys' to grow.
ok the only problem is ... yesterday one of my chickens died .
i noticed she was puffy and withdrawn ...not eating and im sure not drinking .. i do think i seen some bloody poop too .. not 100% sure it was hers tho .
today i have noticed 3! are heading the same way :(
i started them off on 'chicken starter' and now they eat mid range chook food and all kinds of things they find in the yard ( they free range, and follow me every where .) table scraps and the odd bird seed that falls from my birds cage .
i wormed them not very long ago, so i ruled out worms .
i looked around every where they go and couldnt find anything.
all but rushing off to town which is almost two hours away ... i called the vet a little frantic .
seems he thought they had crocidea/ not sure on the spelling.
i asked how they get such a thing.( i had chooks awhile back and they were sadly all eaten but one rooster, close to christmas by a dingo .)
he told me that it was from over crowding ( and there poop).. and i was very shocked and explained there living conditions to him and told him they were out all day and only locked up at night . that they were wormed and taken well care of.
sadly he told me only some sulfur might MIGHT save the others .. and sadly i cant get any til tomorrow ..
im confused and blame my self for loosing my little chicken.
i dont want this to ever happen again ..
does any one please have any ideas and advice on over crowding .
thanks .
over crowding
I alway use baby chick feed that includes medication against coccidiossis for the first 14 weeks and only then switch them to starter. Any feed store should have it.
Mine are four months old and have only been on regular starter for two weeks, so I'm not sure what you mean by mid range food. I'll switch them over to layer feed when they're five months old.
You don't say how big this cage is but there's info here on space requirements per grown bird. Inside space means they need this space no matter whether they only sleep there or not.
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/factsheets/10.html
You should have at least a half a square foot per chick until they're six weeks old.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI1191.html
"Provide half a square foot of brooder house space per chick from 1 day to 6 weeks of age. Allow 1 ½ to 2 square feet of floor space for Leghorn pullets and 2 to 2 ½ square feet for heaving breed pullets confined during the growing period." (I'm sure this must be a typo and they mean to say heavy breeds, not heaving.)
im going to check that site out .. thanks .. !
the pen is a bit smaller then a single garage with a branch they all sit on at night .. there is no green plants in the cage but they have food n water .
i let them out every morning and lock them at night .
THO somthing my neighbour thought might have been the problem was .. when u brought them there were in a tiny cage with possibly at least 50 others... (at the feed store!!)
tho i think the effects of that whould have taken much earlier then now .
i havent ever raised baby chickens before .. so i just gave them the chicken started the feed store guy said to buy ... and moved them onto a chook food. not layer pellets ... a mixture of grain and seeds and oats.
im not sure the food is there problem as they were all healthy and growing great :D
im thinking i should take them all to the vet so he can see them, a phone assumption could be wrong ..
but what ever it is ... i would hope they can save 'em .
Do you mean a garage like you park your car in? I can't imagine they would be crowded in that amount of space. Were you cleaning their litter pretty often? Trying to figure out why the vet thought that was too small of a space.
On the feed, what I'm talking about is a chick starter feed but it has an antibiotic added in that protects them from coccidiosis. You give them this feed for the first 14 weeks. Then you can switch them to regular starter without the antibiotic. You don't want to give them layer feed until they're ready to start laying eggs or it could be harmful.
I wonder why the feed store guy had you switch them to something with whole seeds when they're only a month old? That doesn't sound like a good idea.
I don't think being in a tiny cage for a day or two at the feed store did them any harm that would be killing them now.
This article explains why you give them the medicated feed - it says for the first 16 weeks instead of 14.
http://msucares.com/poultry/feeds/poultry_medications.html
And here's a place in Australia that makes the medicated feeds, both a chick starter crumble and a pullet grower.
http://www.riverina.com.au/website/index.html?pagetoshow=ChickStarterCrumbles(Medicated)
This message was edited Aug 21, 2007 12:28 PM
as a pa state liceanced poultry tech this is my theory, i think it is what you are feeding them. to be honest most vets don't know anything about poultry at least here and won't even see them for an office visit or don't want to deal with them since they don't consider them a pet. if you go that rout know you may not find the help ya need as most only know very little basics for them. i suggest a necropsy of the baby that died if it is not to late to find the cause. it is what we are taught to do if an animal dies for no reason or avian flue ect. is suspected. the body can be refrigerated but not frozen and has to be as fresh as possible before we send it to the animal diagnostics lab. i believe it has to get to them within the first 72 hours if i remember right. for this your local vet or a local poultry tech can help you to get it done.
are they on any kind of grit? it sounds to me they can't digest the stronger food. all birds should have some form of grit especially if they are not eating there normal feed. the above posts are right they should be on starter till they are 16 weeks of age and medicated. the time they where at the feedstore if there was a problem you would have seen it within the first 3 days normally nothing over 7 days. medicated feed does protect against it if they were on it they should have some immunities to it even if it was only for a short time so i honestly don't think that cocci's is what caused it. they should at their age be on medicated starter and starter/chick grit.
at age 16 weeks i switch mine from those 2 to layer pellets, scratch and oyster grit. all of these things you should be able to find at the local feed store. if i do however free range they always have grit and haven't had any problems but they were always 16 weeks or older. i think younger is alright for grass and bugs with grit but i think the grains, oats and seeds shouldn't be given till at least 16 weeks of age because the crop is to small and even if they did have the proper grit it still wouldn't be enough to properly grind up and digest it.
the ratio on liveing conditions is 1sq ft (12" x 12")per bird if you are talking a car garage size then they should have more than enough room even if they were not free ranged. there is noway they are over crowded from my understanding of what you are saying. what table scraps are you feeding them? that might also be part of the problem. are they emptying their crops fully at least once a day? please don't blame yourself because if the people at the feedstore are miss informing you on what to use then there is noway with you never raiseing them before for you to know these things and it surely is not your fault in anyway. you live and learn and keep trying and do better the next time, it's all ya can do really. if ya ever need anything just ask it's what us dave's members are here for to help one another.
silkie