What does it mean when an eggwhite is cloudy?

[SoCal Chicken Mama]

Now that all 4 are laying, I'm getting more than a dozen a week, and this is our day to eat them up. (Bacon and eggs for 4 plus muffins). I cracked three of my RIR eggs, the biggest from my 7 mo. old pullets for the muffins. All three have cloudy whites, I've never seen that before. They smell good and are less than two weeks old, have been in the fridge (with bloom intact) since collected. Does the cloudy white mean anything. They have all been eating oyster shell, and whatever supplements I am trying to give to, my EE who now lays me a pretty little blue or greenish egg almost every day. I finally figured out how to get a calcium capsule down her throat, it says citrate on the bottle, but in the incredients it says (citrate and carbonate). The bottle that is pure citrate with vit. D3 is tablets and I didn't know if she could disolve it, so I crush that one up and mix it with food, which they all steal. I haven't been able to find just citrate in capsules. But, they both work, she started producing eggs after the first dose. Now her week is up, I hope she is still able to keep it up with just the oyster shell on the side. Also, where is a chickens belly? I have heard people say if their belly is hard they may be gorging on grit or oyster shell, but I don't really know where the belly is.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Calcium citrate +D3 comes in an oval tablet, and she can dissolve it just fine, just pop it in her beak and she'll swallow it. Citracal or its (cheaper) generic equivalent is fine.

If you feel the right front of her breast you'll feel her crop, it's the storage area where food goes first. Then it goes further down into the gizzard where it gets ground up. I'll see if I can find a graphic chart. We provide crushed granite grit which chickens ingest and store in the gizzard, a tough muscle where the grit is used to crush the food, since chickens lack teeth. Oyster shell does not do this. Oyster shell is used elsewhere in the body for forming eggshells. Stand by while I look for that anatomical graphic. Unless somebody else beats me to it!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

 

[Bawkbok]

The first time I gave a whole Calcium Citrate with D3 I was terrified of the chicken choaking on the size of it. She swallowed it just fine without issue. I could never swallow a pill without a drink of something but I guess a chicken is different and it goes right down.

 

[WingItRanch]

BigBlueHen and Bawkbok both provided you some good answers regarding the "belly" (you actually are thinking of the crop) and how to administer calcium citrate D3 (if your pullets needs it). Typically given no more than a week if they're having difficulties.

To talk about cloudy egg white... that's actually a good thing! That means your eggs are fresh. It's the carbon dioxide that's making it appear cloudy. The carbon dioxide is normally released after an egg sits for a while so the egg white will turn clear. If it's cloudy that just means it's been recently laid! Perfectly safe and delicious either way! Enjoy!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The first time I gave a whole Calcium Citrate with D3 I was terrified of the chicken choaking on the size of it. She swallowed it just fine without issue. I could never swallow a pill without a drink of something but I guess a chicken is different and it goes right down.

If you look down a chicken's beak you'll see a small hole dead center. That's not the gullet. Food does not go down that opening. That's the trachea, it leads to the lungs. Food goes down the side of the throat and it's an opening large enough to allow a chicken to swallow a mouse or a frog, whole. So have no qualms about that calcium pill, it's tiny compared to what your chicken is capable of gulping down!

ETA: And she doesn't even need a martini to wash it down, lol!

 

[Bawkbok]

It amazes me to think a chicken could swallow a mouse whole without tearing it to pieces first. Does their neck look like that of a snake swallowing a large meal until it hits the crop?

 

[WingItRanch]

It amazes me to think a chicken could swallow a mouse whole without tearing it to pieces first. Does their neck look like that of a snake swallowing a large meal until it hits the crop?

When my pullets were only around 8 weeks old, I saw my smallest girl (an Ancona) grab a frog and swallow it down within seconds before the others could take it from her. I was shocked! I thought for sure she was going to get sick..nope. She strutted away like nothing happened and was fine the next day. She's still my smallest girl despite her ferocious appetite lol.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

It amazes me to think a chicken could swallow a mouse whole without tearing it to pieces first. Does their neck look like that of a snake swallowing a large meal until it hits the crop?

Nope. If you mean, does her throat swell like that of a snake swallowing an egg, no. It just shoots down out of sight.

 

[Bawkbok]

Amazing creatures. Truly amazing.