Keet Struggling to Breathe??

[baby-blue]

Hello - I have a keet who is 12 days old who seems to be struggling for air. She opens her mouth to breathe and her breathing overall looks labored. She was roosting when I first noticed it - she’d move her head off of her back, gasp, put it back, and the cycle would repeat. She’s also scratching at her mouth which is leading me to think that she might have something in her mouth/throat, but she’s currently scratching feed off the ground and eating just fine. They’ve all been very healthy the entire time I’ve had them. She is living with 8 other keets - two of them are 23 days, the rest are 12. They’re on a 22% protein meat bird crumble. It needs higher protein, I know, can’t get to the feed store until the weekend. I plan on pulling her out and seeing if I can look in her mouth. Any other ideas or reasons why? She’s still active. Please help - I can’t lose one of these little guys!

 

[R2elk]

Hello - I have a keet who is 12 days old who seems to be struggling for air. She opens her mouth to breathe and her breathing overall looks labored. She was roosting when I first noticed it - she’d move her head off of her back, gasp, put it back, and the cycle would repeat. She’s also scratching at her mouth which is leading me to think that she might have something in her mouth/throat, but she’s currently scratching feed off the ground and eating just fine. They’ve all been very healthy the entire time I’ve had them. She is living with 8 other keets - two of them are 23 days, the rest are 12. They’re on a 22% protein meat bird crumble. It needs higher protein, I know, can’t get to the feed store until the weekend. I plan on pulling her out and seeing if I can look in her mouth. Any other ideas or reasons why? She’s still active. Please help - I can’t lose one of these little guys!

The problem with meat bird feed is not only is the protein content low but so is the lysine, methionine and niacin concentrations. All flock feed that is ground fine enough for the keets to eat is a better choice than meat bird feed because it has the higher concentrations of lysine, methionine and niacin that they need. Of course, a quality turkey or gamebird starter is what they really should have for the first 6 weeks followed by turkey or gamebird grower for weeks 7 through 12.

It would not be surprising that there is something long that is reaching into the keet's crop but also still not completely swallowed.

 

[baby-blue]

The problem with meat bird feed is not only is the protein content low but so is the lysine, methionine and niacin concentrations. All flock feed that is ground fine enough for the keets to eat is a better choice than meat bird feed because it has the higher concentrations of lysine, methionine and niacin that they need. Of course, a quality turkey or gamebird starter is what they really should have for the first 6 weeks followed by turkey or gamebird grower for weeks 7 through 12.

It would not be surprising that their is something long that is reaching into the keet's crop but also still not completely swallowed.

Thank you for the information - I’ll definitely pick up a different feed when I’m at the feed store next. They had the game bird starter in the back and were unaware that it was in stock - the meat bird feed was the only one on the shelves that had anything more than 18% protein. She stopped the behavior and is now roosting again. Thank you regardless!