Good chicken health is important if you want your bird to live a long and healthy life. If your bird’s poop changes from brown to mustard yellow then you’d be right to worry.
You may think that this means that the bird’s health is deteriorating, and this could be the case, this article looks into why this happens
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Mustard yellow chicken poop:
Chickens can’t tell us how they’re feeling and they can’t tell us that they’re ill, but we can make an educated guess on the health of the bird if the bird suddenly has a change in appearance, behavior, or if the color of their poop changes.
If your bird’s poop suddenly becomes mustard yellow, then this may have happened because of:
Parasites:
If your bird is producing yellow, foamy poop, then your bird may be suffering from an ailment called blackhead, another name for this ailment is histoplasmosis.
Blackhead is common in birds like turkeys but it can also develop in chickens, game birds, and pheasants.
This disease is caused by the Histomonas meleagridis parasite. Your bird may have become infected with this disease if it ate droppings, food, or invertebrates, like earthworms, infected with this parasite.
Other signs of this disease in chickens include poor growth, droopy wings, depression, emaciation, blood in the feces, unkempt feathers, and little or no appetite.
What to do:
Unfortunately, there are no established treatments for this disease but you can try to control the spread of this disease by isolating the sick bird and immunizing your healthy birds against this disease.
Maintaining good hygiene will help keep a secondary infection from developing as a result of virus-induced immunosuppression.
Unfortunately, your young birds will quickly die if they get this disease and your older birds will live with this disease for a little longer before they die after they become emaciated.
Cecal poop:
If your bird’s poop suddenly changes from a brown color, to a dark yellow color, then what you’re seeing may simply be the bird’s cecal poop.
Chickens have a number of interesting organs including the cecal pouches, these organs collect the fibrous material that your chicken eats, digests it, ferments it, and reabsorbs as much water as possible.
These two organs digest fibrous materials like twigs and other fibrous materials
The bird then produces “cecal poop” once digestion, fermentation, and reabsorption are complete. Cecal poop can sometimes be black but it can also be a dark mustard yellow color.
This type of poop is normal and you can expect your bird to expel this cecal poop every 8 to 10 droppings.
Another feature of cecal poop is its smell, this poop is very stinky. If your bird’s yellow poop is very stinky then what you may be looking at may be cecal poop.
What to do:
If you see that your bird is producing a smelly yellow poop every 8-10 poops don’t be alarmed, this is natural. There isn’t anything that needs to be done. In fact, this is normal and natural and is a sign that your bird’s digestive system is working as it should.
You don’t have to worry as long as the bird is acting normally and as long as there aren’t any worms, or isn’t any blood, in the bird’s poop
Diarrhea:
A bird that has diarrhea will have very runny poops, diarrhea poop is yellow in color and will have a greasy consistency.
If your bird eats something new, and this new food doesn’t agree with the bird’s stomach, then your bird may develop yellow diarrhea poop. Giving your bird corn can also make the bird produce yellow poop.
What to do:
If your bird releases runny yellow poop for a short time, then goes back to releasing brown and firm poop, then the problem sorted itself out and you don’t have to do anything
If the bird continues to produce yellow and runny poop, then you may need to investigate further into why this is happening.
You can take a closer look at her diet and remove any new foods you’ve recently added, or, you can take the bird to the vet.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Pink Chicken Poop, Chicken Poop Clear Jelly, Baby Chick Eyes Stuck Shut, Baby Chick Not Opening Eyes, Signs A Baby Chick Is Dying
