You’ll likely encounter some weird and wonderful scenarios when raising your baby chicks, some weird and wonderful problems including the baby chick crying while pooping.
This article will look into why your baby chick cries when it poops
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Baby chick cries when pooping:
While chicks are very cute and adorable animals they go through things just as any other animal would go through, like crying, and they may even cry at odd times like when the bird is pooping.
Here is why your bird may be crying while pooping:
Pasty butt:
We humans cry when we are in pain, and some animals do the same including chicks.
So, if your bird is crying while pooping then the bird is likely in pain while it is pooping and this may happen because the bird has a condition called pasty butt.
You’ll know that your baby bird has pasty butt if it has poop dried up at its vent. Your bird’s poop is meant to be wet and simply slide out of your bird.
If your bird has pasty butt then its poop will dry up at its vent and block the vent.
The bird will still produce poop but this poop won’t be able to pass because of the blockage.
If the bird tries to force the poop out, and it succeeds, then the dried-up poop may be painful to pass because it is stuck at the vent, or, the poop may even tear the skin at the bird’s vent making the bird cry.
What to do:
While pasty vent is common in baby chicks it is also very dangerous and can be life-threatening to your little birds.
The condition usually goes away on its own as the bird grows out of it, in about 7 to 10 days, but if the bird does not grow out of it, then treatment will be necessary.
Thankfully you can treat your bird for this condition at home:
Start off by having a look at the bird vent to see if the bird does in fact have pasty vent.
The vent of a healthy bird will be pink and clean, the vent of a bird that has pasty vent will be caked up with dried poop.
If the bird does have pasty vent you can run the bird’s vent under some warm water to soften the mass.
You can alternatively apply some vegetable oil to the mass to soften it up, or, you can use a warm wet cloth on the mass to soften it up.
Once the mass is softened up you can remove the mass using a cotton swab.
If the bird’s bottom is still wet you can dry the area off using a blow dryer. Hold the drier 8 inches away from the bird’s bottom to keep the bird from overheating or getting burnt.
Issues with the poop:
If your bird does not have pasty butt then the issue may be that its poo is too hard and the bird is struggling to pass it.
The issue may also be that there is something stuck in the bird’s digestive tract and the bird is having a hard time passing it.
What to do:
The best case scenario in this situation is to give the bird a lot of fluids to drink.
This will serve the purpose of both loosening the bird’s poop and helping any foreign objects, in your bird’s digestive system, along.
If the bird isn’t drinking enough water on its own then you can try adding sugar to its water to encourage the bird to drink more water.
You can also give your bird plain yogurt, plain yogurt has a lot of fluid, plus, birds love it. Giving olive oil may also help to lubricate the foreign objects in your bird’s stomach.
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