Emaciated cockerel

[Amina]

I have two 12 week old cockerels that have been in with a flock of their same-age sister, and some adults (six hens and a rooster) for a few weeks now. It seemed like the cockerels were a bit small for their age, and then yesterday I picked one of them up and noticed he was emaciated - I couldn't feel any breast muscle, his keel was so prominent. I feel awful that it got this bad without me noticing. His brother is not quite as bad as him, but doesn't have much breast muscle either, compared to their sister.

I don't know how it got to be this way. The hens do pick on them some, so it's possible that they're not eating enough because of that, but I do have multiple feeders out there. I brought the skinnier one inside and noticed that his crop felt empty, so I tried to feed him some starter/grower because of the higher protein relative to grower/finisher, but he was not at all interested. Then I offered him some scratch, and he gobbled that up and had a nice full crop, but I know that's not ideal because of the low protein. I gave him some egg too, and some mealworms.

Any idea what I should do here? I don't know why he would refuse regular food if he had an empty crop...

He has no other symptoms, and his poops look good.

 

[Eggcessive]

What are your plans for the 2 cockerels? When they get that age in a flock that already has a rooster, they will have to sneak around for any food they can get. Even the hens will run them off from food. You could pen the 2 boys together or separate him only, and feed him in his pen. If you don't want to separate them, then place a couple of small food bowls in different spots away from the coop for them to eat.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Just try any treats you have on hand.