Causes of Vent Pecking, Prolapsed Vent and Cannibalism among Chickens

Agric4Profits April 16, 2023May 28, 2023 2 Comments Poultry

Some chicken farmers witness the intestines coming out and pecked as they lay from birds on their poultry farm but many times, the farmers decide to suffer in silence because of not knowing the cause or the problem or how to resolve them and sometimes we blame a particular breeder that their birds peck too much.

This may happen in broiler chicken if you are into broiler production, layer chicken, or others which is the reason why in poultry production, there is also a need for quality chicken feed production when producing chicken feed as it can help to prevent cannibalism among poultry birds especially broiler farming and Layers production because your poultry management goes a long way to determine the success rate of your poultry business.

There are so many poultry farming for beginners guides that can assist you as a beginner.

Let’s take a look at some of the facts about the cause of the problems in your poultry house or chicken farm as popularly called by some farmers:

1. Wrong regulation of growth of the birds during the grower phase

You should not force the birds to lay when they are still young. It’s very bad. 18 to 20 weeks is safer to start laying than 16 or 17 weeks

2. Too much boosting of the chickens

The so called egg boosters and heavy vitamins that you always supplement your birds have a lot of nutrients which many times make the eggs very big to an extent that the birds small vent cannot handle.

The premix you have in the feed is enough to give your birds good and well balanced vitamins. Let no re-marketing vets mislead you into egg boosters

Too much of egg boosting on these starting layers will burst their behinds.

3. Mineral imbalance

Dealers of concentrates are fighting hard to have their formulations cheaper than the other competitors, so many times they have ended up with imbalance of minerals in the complete feed.
Among these minerals is the calcium.

Inadequate calcium in feed leads to weak bones, weak eggshells, cage layer fatigue, more damages in eggs and weak muscles.

The muscles that hold back the vent after laying become weak and just leave the vent out, so exposing the vent to being pecked by other birds in chicken rearing.

Add good quality lime in feed, in its rightful amounts in the feed. Do not adulterate your feed with excess broken maize too.

Lime ( preferably white lime) is readily available calcium for utilization. So it puts less burden on the intestine during digestion and works faster than shells. White and granulated lime are more pure than shells.

Shells have to go under serious digestion to get out the calcium. Shells carry a % of sand so you will need a bit more shells than lime dirty shells too can be a cause of disease.

4. Heat Stress

At one farm , the birds lost feathers and remained naked simply because they had a lot of heat from the roof! The house was too short, and this problem used to happen only during the dry season.

Causes of Vent Pecking, Prolapsed Vent and Cannibalism among Poultry Birds

So, because the behind of the birds was naked, these other birds could easily see the vent coming out as the bird lays the egg and they started pecking even after laying, these birds as they try to prick off the feathers in a way of cooling their bodies from the heat, a little blood came out which attracted other birds to peck.
Plan the houses very well! With proper ventilation.

5. Debeaking

I do not have mercy on beaks. Even if it leads to too much pain, I have to cut off the beaks using this pair of scissors or automatic machine (looks like a pruner but a bit smaller).

Debeaking should always be done right, by the right person, at the right time( 10 to 12 weeks) and handle the stress after debeaking using an active multivitamin.

6. Design of the chickens laying boxes

Your laying boxes should be properly covered to give enough darkness when the bird is laying otherwise if it’s very exposed by too much light, these birds will easily peck since they see other’s behind when they are laying.

Try to place the laying boxes in a dark place, not direct in the sun or where there is a lot of light to enhance your egg production to enable you make more profit from your poultry business .

Supplement your birds on multivitamin to control stress after debeaking, after vaccinations, deworming, transportation ( brooder) and all other kinds of stress.

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2 thoughts on “Causes of Vent Pecking, Prolapsed Vent and Cannibalism among Chickens”

Ruth Mulongo

February 19, 2021 at 6:52 am

Thanks for this knowledge. It is educative to me as a student and as an aspiring poultry farmer
- Benadine Nonye
  
  February 19, 2021 at 1:55 pm
  
  Glad i could help and thanks for the appreciation

Causes of Vent Pecking, Prolapsed Vent and Cannibalism among Chickens