Sudden odd behavior in your rooster is very concerning, especially if the odd behavior is the bird walking backward. If this is what’s happening with your bird you’d be right to be worried, this article is a look into why this happens.
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Rooster walking backward:
Diseases can cause birds to express a variety of odd and unusual symptoms, one such symptom is the bird walking backward. Here are reasons why this may be happening in your rooster:
Newcastle disease:
If your chicken is walking backward the bird may have a nervous condition called Newcastle disease. Nervous conditions either affect the bird’s spinal cord, brain, or specific nerves.
Newcastle disease will not only affect roosters but birds of all types.
Your rooster will catch this disease if it comes into contact with a sick bird’s droppings, comes into contact with contaminated food or water (contaminated by a sick bird’s droppings), or breathes in air that is contaminated, air may become contaminated by a sneeze from a sick rooster.
Signs that your rooster has Newcastle disease, apart from the bird walking backward, include walking in circles, difficulty breathing, depression, ruffled feathers, and green diarrhea.
What to do:
Unfortunately, there is no treatment for Newcastle disease in roosters.
If your bird contracts a secondary infection then you can treat this infection by giving the bird antibiotics for 3-5 days.
The best way to keep this disease at bay is to vaccinate your flock members before they can get this disease. The methods of vaccination are quite simple and are very accessible.
You can either add the vaccine to your birds drinking water, use a vaccine in the form of an eye drop, or spray your birds with the vaccine.
Vitamin E deficiency:
A vitamin E deficiency can also be the reason why your rooster is walking backward. This vitamin is needed for the optimum function of the nervous, muscular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems.
Signs of a vitamin E deficiency in birds, other than walking backward, include muscular dysfunction, poor feed conversion, involuntary head movement, enlarged hocks, inability to walk, greenish/blueish skin, and even paralysis.
What to do:
If you think that this is what’s wrong with your rooster you’d need to isolate the bird in a secluded, warm and comfortable enclosure. Give the bird its own sources of food and water while in this enclosure.
You’d then need to supplement vitamin E into your bird’s diet, this will reverse the vitamin E deficiency in your bird. Thankfully this isn’t difficult to do.
You can give the bird a vitamin E supplement, or feed the bird foods rich in vitamin E like chard, dandelion, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nettle, and spinach. These can be given to your birds as a daily snack.
Giving the bird selenium is also recommended, you can find selenium in tuna.
You can also add electrolytes to the bird’s water while treating the bird for its vitamin E deficiency.
Molting:
If your rooster is walking backward and is molting at the same time, then the molting is likely why the bird is walking backward.
Molting is a painful process for roosters and other birds, this process can bring out a number of odd behaviors in your birds, like not eating or drinking that well, side stepping, walking around in circles, head weaving, and, walking backward.
What to do:
Molting is a normal process for roosters and you can’t do anything to stop this from happening. The bird will stop this newfound odd behavior as soon as its feathers start to grow back.
Adding more protein to the bird’s diet during the molt may help the bird during this time.
You can give the bird protein in the form of tuna, unmedicated chick crumbs, cat food, scrambled eggs, or mealworms. You can also add lifeguard tonic (a nutritional supplement) to the bird’s water.
The added protein will help combat feather loss and will help in replacing old feathers with new feathers.
Giving the bird added calcium and vitamin D is also recommended. Overall, keep the bird from becoming malnourished at this time
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: Nutri-Drench For Wry Neck, Chicken Comb Looks Dry, Chicken Feathers Look Frayed,