Chickens can suffer from a host of illnesses and conditions. If youre raising chickens, and prefer to give them natural remedies when they’re ill, you may be considering giving your bird sugar water. This article explores how sugar water helps sick chickens.
Giving sugar water to chickens is helpful as it boosts their energy levels. Molasses, a type of liquid sugar, is a natural laxative for chickens.
Table of Contents
Sugar water for sick chickens:
Table sugar
Regular, everyday, table sugar can be a great way to make a lethargic, slow, and sickly chicken perk up. The glucose in the sugar will help boost the bird’s energy levels.
Chickens become weak when their blood sugar is low, serving sugar water is a short-term solution that can help with this and peak their blood sugar levels.
Giving sugar water to chicks that have just hatched, and are weak from the tiresome hatching process, is also helpful.
Giving sugar water to baby birds is also helpful as it helps to raise their body temperature.
How to make and serve:
This recipe calls for table sugar (1oz/28g) or glucose powder, depending on what you have, and water
Dissolve your sugar into 2 cups (500ml/16 fl oz) of warm water.
Serve this to your bird and allow them to have as much as they want. Keep feeding your bird until the bird perks up and moves as normal for an adult or a baby bird,
Molasses:
Molasses and table sugar are both sugar, this sugar contains sucrose and smaller amounts of the monosaccharides fructose and glucose. It is eaten by humans and can be given to chickens as well.
Chickens can be given molasses if the bird needs a gentle laxative. Your bird may need molasses if it’s eaten a toxic plant or anything else that it needs to pass through its system.
The molasses helps to draw water into the intestines and into the stool, the water will then enter into the bird’s stool and help it pass easier and eliminate constipation.
Molasses is also a good source of iron, selenium, and copper
How to make and serve:
Making a molasses solution for chickens involves dissolving ¼ cup of molasses into 2 quarts/liters of warm water, and feeding this to your birds.
You can leave this mixture out for your birds for 4-6 hours, remove this mixture and give your bird clean drinking water afterward.
Expect a lot of poop from the bird after giving this mixture. Do not offer the bird this water for too long as this can lead to pasty butt which is an issue in itself.
This mixture should not be given as a continuous treatment for your bird.
Note: Although the above sugar water solutions may help your bird with its condition, taking your bird to a vet is still recommended.
If your bird gets sick over the weekend, or if the bird gets sick when the vet is unavailable, you can give sugar water to the bird while waiting to see a vet.
How to give sugar water to uncooperative chickens:
If your bird isn’t taking too well to the sugar water that you’ve left out for them, then you may need to force-feed the bird the sugar water. This is how to do this:
You need to start by getting the sugar water ready for the bird. To do this, take some sugar water into a syringe (a syringe without a needle) before you try to catch your bird.
Once you have the sugar water ready in your syringe, and once you’ve caught your bird, use your thumb and your index finger to gently pinch the bird’s waddle.
Use the tip of your ring finger on your same hand and gently open the bird’s beak. Keep this position while you’re feeding the bird.
Use your other hand to get the syringe head into the bird’s mouth and let a few drops of the sugar water drip into the bird’s mouth.
Once the water has dripped into the bird’s mouth (the bird only needs a few drops) then you can release the bird and it will swallow the sugar water.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if your bird is tired, lethargic, or has just hatched, you can give it sugar water to perk it up. You can give your bird a molasses mixture if you need it to pass something that it shouldn’t have eaten.
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: What To Do When One Lovebird Dies, Chicken With One Droopy Wing, Chicken Laying On Side, How To Tell If A Mother Bird Has Abandoned Her Nest