Helping a hen gain weight.

[ChookBook]

Hi.

One of my little girls- Audrey hasn't been very well lately (see https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/848814/help-diagnose-our-mystery-illness for more info).
Because of her new lack in appetite; she's lost heaps and heaps of weight, and it's worrying all of us here. At the moment she's only really interesting in her favourite, corn, and occasionally comes over for a feed of her layer pellets. We've tried feeding her some bread and pastas but she didn't eat very much of them.

Is there anything she would

LOVE

that would be easy to get a hold of (typical home foods or common to find) that I could feed her?

Molly x

Peggy x

Audrey xx

 

[ChookBook]

At the moment she's only really interesting in her favourite, corn,

Sorry!! I meant interested*

 

[TwoCrows]

Chickens prefer their feed damp and will eat more of it if you dampen it. I have gotten weak or sick birds to eat more than they normally would by misting the feed and get it a bit wet. Keep it damp all day if you can and she will eat more of it. You will be surprised how quick they gain weight when they eat a lot of layer feed. And because she has lost not only weight but muscle and is probably drained, you need to get her to eat more of a balanced diet.

You might also try some cooked ground beef or cooked ground turkey every day or every other day. About a 1/16 of an ounce is enough. It will not only add some weight but give her more protein to put on muscle.

These are the things I have tried on my birds to get their weights back up. Hope this helps.

Edited to add: I am going to change the 1/16 of an ounce to 1/16th of a pound. Sorry I wrote that wrong.

Cook up 1/16th of an pound, or 1 ounce.

 

[ChookBook]

Chickens prefer their feed damp and will eat more of it if you dampen it. I have gotten weak or sick birds to eat more than they normally would by misting the feed and get it a bit wet. Keep it damp all day if you can and she will eat more of it. You will be surprised how quick they gain weight when they eat a lot of layer feed. And because she has lost not only weight but muscle and is probably drained, you need to get her to eat more of a balanced diet.

You might also try some cooked ground beef or cooked ground turkey every day or every other day. About a 1/16 of an ounce is enough. It will not only add some weight but give her more protein to put on muscle.

These are the things I have tried on my birds to get their weights back up. Hope this helps.

Thanks a heap!

We've got heaps of meat over here (we're a bunch of carnivores - I swear) so I'll try cook that up and feed it to her.
xxxx

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote: Oops...I meant 1/16 of a pound. 1/16th of an ounce would be barely visible. LOL Good luck with your baby.

 

[azygous]

If none of the previous suggestions work, I've had luck with crumbling up tofu sprinkled with Poultry Nutridrench. Also, she may be having trouble absorbing nutrients. You might try a pre-biotic in addition to everything. I had a hen who was underweight actually grow after she was two years old using a prebiotic called Forco.

 

[Brookliner]

You might try addi baby polyvisol liquid vitamins to a mash made with layer feed soaked in warm water. Make it the constituency of yougert. Feed it warm you can even sprinkle some scratch on it.

 

[ChookBook]

Thanks for the responses!
I'll try them all out right away. She's looking a lot better in the face but she still is struggling to walk around straight. I've noticed that right before she goes to bed , she pigs out on everything. Is there anything super super fatty that I coukd put in her feeder for her (none of the other girls usually eat at this time, so it wont be for them) to eat?

 

[azygous]

Beware of fatty foods for chickens. It can go right to their liver, causing long term liver disease. Your best best is to give her a balanced chicken diet : Mostly layer or flock grower feed, but moisten it with warm water, some yogurt, some tofu, some boiled eggs, a variety, but mostly grains. Chickens are built for cereals and bugs. Get her some meal worms. They're half protein. A prebiotic will help her absorb the food nutrients better. A chicken multi vitamin like Poultry Nutridrench has what sick chickens need to recover their health. It's like Poly-vi-sol on steroids.

Will she eat if she's all alone? I have never had any luck getting a sick chicken to eat unless I feed her along with one of her best friends. That works every time. If you make a mistake and choose a chicken higher in the pecking order, she won't eat. It needs to be someone her age that she's equal to.

I hope she pulls through and is back to normal in short time!

 

[remisophy]

I have the same problem my girl is recovering from impacted crop I treated her got the crop down treating for sour crop also giving garlic water and Kiefer also Nutra drench Three times a day have been syringe feeding her for 10 days and giving her water she still is not steady on her feet to walk she lays down most of the time