Chickens love to eat, your bird will come running if they know that they’re in for some food, but, what happens if your bird can’t swallow said food?
This article looks into why your chicken can’t swallow food.
Table of Contents
Chicken can’t swallow food:
Chickens need to eat good feed to maintain good health. A lot of the bird’s health depends on what foods they eat.
For this reason, a bird not swallowing its food will be odd. Here are reasons why your chicken may have issues swallowing food:
Food in crop:
If your bird is swallowing, but the food seems to be stuck in its throat, then the food may simply be sitting in the bird’s crop.
Chicken anatomy is different from human anatomy in many ways.
When humans eat, the food goes down our throats directly into our stomachs. Chickens are not the same.
When chickens eat, their food is stored, for a short period of time, in a pouch called the crop.
These birds evolved to have crops so they could quickly eat large amounts of food while out in the wild, in the open, and digest it slowly elsewhere in a safe and secluded place.
If your bird is eating, and its throat seems to be getting big, then this bulge that you’re seeing may simply be food being stored in the crop.
What to do:
This is quite normal behavior for chickens and is not something that you need to worry about.
The bulge that you see should go down in a few hours.
As long as the bird is acting normally, and its crop empties and becomes flat after a couple of hours, then the bird should be fine.
That being said, if the bird’s general behavior starts to change, then you should consider taking the bird to the vet.
A change in behavior may mean that the bird is ill.
Crop impaction:
The food in your chicken’s crop may not be going down because the bird is suffering from crop impaction.
Crop impaction can happen if your bird eats fibrous foods like long tall grasses, or litter like wood shavings, straw, or too much sand
It can also happen if the bird eats foreign objects like stones, pieces of metal, or small toys.
These items can cause a blockage in the bird’s crop and this blockage keeps food from moving down into the bird’s stomach.
A bird suffering from crop impaction may also not lay eggs, will be weak, and, will have a lack of droppings.
What to do:
Quarantine your bird and do not let it have any food for 24 hours, only allow it to drink water.
Not feeding the bird will keep the situation from getting worse. The water may also help to break up the impaction.
After this, feed the bird some vegetable oil and massage its crop.
This may help to break up the impaction and allow it to pass. Massage from the top down.
If this does not solve the problem, then you may need to take the bird to the vet to have the blockage removed surgically.
Canker or gapeworm:
Other reasons why your bird may have trouble swallowing may be that the bird has an illness called canker or that it is infected with gapeworms.
Canker is a disease that causes canker-like sores on the back of the bird’s throat.
These sores can cause the birds to develop issues with swallowing
Gapeworm is a condition that affects the bird’s throat as well.
Gapeworms are parasites that infect the bird and live in the bird’s throat.
They can also cause the bird to have difficulty swallowing.
What to do:
Have a look at the bird’s mouth and throat, if the bird has canker then you’ll be able to see the cheesy yellow sores at the back of the bird’s throat.
You may, or may not, be able to see the gapeworms in the bird’s throat but the bird will be in distress if it is infected with gapeworms.
If you suspect that your bird has any of these conditions then it is recommended that you take your bird to the vet.
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, Baby Chick Losing Weight, 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,
