2 week chick poop question

[Sara211]

Hi all,
New chicken mama here. I’ve been doing lots of reading here but felt like I wanted to ask for my own reassurance.

We got our chicks almost 2 weeks ago (Friday will be 2 weeks). Last night, we noticed two of the four had runny poop and one (Tuck) was pooping a lot. One time she pooped, it was literally clear. Two times were runny and brown and one was “normal”. After looking here, we decided it would be good to raise the heat lamp, since they were likely too hot. All day, they’ve been laying on the lamp side, not huddled together, and seem comfortable.

This afternoon when I went to check on them, I witnessed Tuck poop. It was still pretty watery, but brown. I did also notice a dropping among the pine shavings that had a bit of orange in it. I can take a picture if that would be helpful. Is this normal for her poop to still be watery? Are they still too hot? Are they sick? Is the orange part of the poop something to worry about?

Thank you so much from an anxious chick mama.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

There's a lot of variety in chicken poop that is normal. The orange sounds cecal, which is a normal clearing they do in about every 4 to 5 poops. You want to watch out for bright red which is coccidia (a protozoa that basically causes dysentary in chickens).

Yes. It sounds like you had your heat to hot. Chickens will poo runny watery poo when too hot. It may take a day or two for that to settle.

If you don't have them on medicated feed, you might consider that, although feed store chicks on clean litter rarely get coccidiosis, which is something they pick up in the soil and dirty litter.

I'll post an article on chicken poop:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive/

It sounds like it was heat related. Just keep an eye on them.
LofMc