If you want to know whether your bird is ill, or if your bird is going through a change, then you’d need to have a look at the bird’s wattles, comb, feathers, and poop, these parts of a chicken usually signal whether the bird is healthy or not.
A chicken that is suddenly pooping black poop is definitely going through a change, this article looks into it.
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What does black chicken poop mean?
Chicken poop can come in a variety of different colors and textures, the poop of a chicken is normally brown and clumpy with white urates on it.
Your bird’s poop can also be yellow, pink, red, green, or black. Reasons why your bird has black poop, may be:
Diet:
Your bird’s diet will greatly affect how your bird’s poop comes out. Foods that will cause your chicken to produce black poop include dark fruits like blueberries and blackberries.
Your bird may also be eating wood ash or charcoal and this could be what is making the bird produce the black poop.
What to do:
If your chicken’s poop is coming out black because the bird is eating blueberries and blackberries then you don’t have to worry.
You may want to add more variety to your bird’s diet, but a bird producing black poop because it eats a lot of blueberries and blackberries isn’t a big concern.
A chicken producing black poop because it is eating wood ash isn’t a concern either, in fact, feeling wood ash to your chickens will reduce the smell of the droppings.
A chicken that eats charcoal will simply have lower amounts of ammonia in its manure.
Broody chicken:
When a chicken goes broody its poop changes. The poop of a broody hen may look dark brown or even black.
Another big difference that you may notice is the size of the bird’s poop, the poop of a broody hen will be very large.
Because broody hens don’t leave their nest as other birds do, they don’t poop as often as other birds do.
As a result, the bird will create very large poops less often and the poops will be dark in color.
What to do:
There isn’t anything you can do about the color or size of your bird’s poop if your bird goes broody, but you can get your bird out of its broody state if you don’t want it sitting around being broody, and if you don’t want the broodiness to become contagious.
Leaving the bird to be broody will result in the bird sitting on the nest indefinitely, she can suffer and may even die if she does this for too long.
Cecal poop:
Chickens sometimes produce a totally different type of poop than the brown poop that you’re used to, this poop, called cecal poop, ranges from yellow to black in color.
Chickens have two organs called cecal pouches. Cecal pouches can be found in the bird’s lower abdominal cavity at the end of the small intestine before the large intestine.
Foods that are very fibrous, like twigs and other hard-to-digest plant matter, are sent to these pouches to be digested separately and fermented.
These pouches also absorb fluids and salts.
After absorption and fermentation, the material will move out through the bird, and the chicken will release this material as a different type of poop.
The poop created by this material is a black or yellow poop called cecal poop, and this may be what you’re seeing.
This poop is produced about every 8- 10 poops and it smells very badly.
What to do:
There isn’t anything that needs to be done, your bird-producing cecal poop is a signal that your bird is healthy and that its digestive system is working as it should be.
As long as there are no other issues with the bird, and as long as the bird doesn’t seem sick, then you have nothing to worry about.
Internal bleeding:
If a bird is bleeding internally, somewhere in its digestive tract, then the blood may cause the bird’s poop to be black in color.
This blood will turn black as it gets digested. If the injury is lower in the digestive tract, then the blood won’t be digested and your bird will have redder poop.
What to do:
If you think that this is what’s wrong with your bird then you’d need to take your bird to the vet to be examined and diagnosed. Taking your bird to an avian vet is recommended but a general vet will also be able to help.
FAQ:
How long can a chicken go without pooping?
Chickens can’t go for very long without pooping, these animals are known for being quite “regular”, you can expect the average chicken to poop every 30 minutes or so.
Interestingly, if the chicken is smaller it will poop more often.
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: Baby Chick Making Green Poop, Black Tar Chicken Poop, Chicken Puffed Up Tail Down, Chicken Has A Floppy Comb + Is Lethargic, Baby Chick Suddenly Can’t Walk,