Baby chicks are already small, so, it would understandably worry you if these birds started losing weight.
This article looks into why your baby chick may be losing weight.
Table of Contents
Baby chick losing weight:
Weight loss in humans can happen when we want it to, and when we don’t want it to.
Here is why your chick may be losing weight suddenly:
Illness:
Your baby chicks can become sick very early on in their life and this can cause them to lose weight.
One of the main signs of illness in chicks is a loss of appetite, a loss of appetite can make the bird lose weight suddenly
If your young chick is sick, then this may be because of disease in the breeding flock or hatchery.
Regardless of how your bird got sick, the bird’s sickness needs to be addressed.
What to do:
The recommended route to take, and the best way to handle this situation, would be to take your chick to the vet.
Or better yet, take the bird to an avian vet.
The vet, will examine the bird, run tests on the bird, diagnose the bird, and finally, offer treatment to the bird.
The bird is stressed:
Stress can negatively affect humans, chickens, and chicks, and can have negative effects on all of our bodies.
Stress can increase how glands in the bird’s body function, it can also affect the size of the glands.
These glands affect the bird’s appetite, if this happens then the bird may start to lose weight because it has no appetite.
What to do:
If the bird’s body comes under stress, because it is being vaccinated, if it is overheated, chilled, dewormed, or, debeaked then it is advised that the bird be given vitamin A.
Vitamin A helps with stress in chickens.
If you know that your bird will be going under stress soon, then you can feed the bird vitamin A supplements 2-3 days prior and 2-5 days following the stress.
Also, consider giving the bird more warmth if it is too cold, and, cool the bird if it is overheating.
Beak issues:
Another reason why your bird may be losing weight may be that the bird has an issue with its beak.
Baby birds are especially susceptible to developing beak issues and developing injuries at their beaks.
Beak issues can keep the bird from being able to pick up food. This will cause the bird to starve and lose weight.
Your bird may also have developed sores in its mouth keeping it from eating properly
What to do:
Have a look at your bird’s beak and try to determine if the beak has a deformity or even a bruise.
If your bird’s beak does have a deformity, or a bruise, then you’d have to take special care of the bird.
This will look like syringe feeding the bird, or tube feeding the bird, to help it gain weight until its beak can be used as normal.
You may have to feed the bird more mashed-up and pureed foods as well as give the bird feed that is ground up and mixed with water to create a paste.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Cockatiel Not Begging For Food, Why Is My Chicken Not Gaining Weight, Chick Not Gaining Weight, Baby Chick Feathers Not Fluffy, Chicken Trouble Swallowing, How To Help A Choking Chicken, Chicken Looks Like It’s Choking, Baby Chick Having Trouble Swallowing, Chicken Can’t Swallow Food
