Easy Homemade Electrolytes Recipe for Chickens
Inside: Keeping your chickens healthy is important, and electrolytes can help! Here are the benefits of electrolytes for chickens and how to administer them.
When you have chickens you can go from everything is fine and dandy and to running around to trying to save a chick or adult chickens life for any reason. Things change quickly with chickens. From a chick that isn't thriving to a chicken that isn't drinking enough in extreme heat. Homemade electrolytes for chickens is your answer. Sometimes you might be at risk of losing your entire flock.
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Homemade Electrolytes for Chickens
Electrolytes are very important to proper body function in animals and people. Electrolytes replace sodium, potassium, and minerals in the body lost due to stress, overheating or dehydration.
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They also rehydrate and rebalance the body's pH levels (acidity) which are extremely important for proper body functions.
Much like an athlete will drink an electrolyte drink after a race or a baby will be given Pedialyte for vomiting or diarrhea, sometimes chickens need a little boost and some rebalancing.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of water, warmed
- 2 teaspoons molasses OR 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Mix all the ingredients together and stir until completely combined.
Give to sick, stressed, or ailing chicks with a medicine dropper. If they aren’t opening their beaks, you can drip it on the outside of their beaks and sometimes they will open their beak and the water will run into their mouths. You do not want to try and force their mouth open, you could seriously hurt them.
I give my sick chicks a few drops every 10 minutes or so until they start perking up. Just play it by ear. I also give Poly-Vi-Sol to chicks that need a boost. This isn't given every 10 minutes though, just a couple drops a couple of times a day.
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If I had a larger chicken that was dehydrated or overheated, I would offer this solution as their drinking water for a short time. However, I have no plans to give this to my healthy chickens, as it’s just not needed unless there is an issue.
What Electrolytes Do
Electrolytes play a crucial role in maintaining optimal body function in both animals and humans. They replenish essential minerals like sodium and potassium lost during heat stress, stress from moving, overheating, or dehydration.
Electrolytes aid in rehydration and restoring the body's pH levels, which are vital for overall bodily functions.
Similar to athletes replenishing with Gatorade post-race or babies receiving Pedialyte for vomiting or diarrhea, there are instances when baby chicks and chickens also require a boost and rebalancing of electrolytes.
When to Use Electrolytes for Chickens
Electrolytes can be beneficial to chicks and chickens in these situations:
- in cases of heat exhaustion, watch for high temperatures during the summer, especially with heat advisories
- for chicks suffering from shipping/travel stress or weak chicks
- to aid with stress from a predator attack
- when treating an injury
- in cases of diarrhea
- birds suffering from another health issue
- to aid a sick bird without much appetite
- after transporting chickens of any age, this is
Signs That Your Chicken Needs This Electrolyte Mixture
Signs that your chicken is experiencing heat stress, dehydration, and homemade electrolyte solution
- panting or labored breathing.
- pale comb and/or wattles. sometimes purplish combs
- spreading wings away from body.
- diarrhea.
- lethargy.
- limpness.
- unresponsive.
- seizures, convulsions.
Our homemade electrolyte recipe is pretty standard and a good one to bookmark for an emergency when your feathered friends need a pick me up and easy to make in an emergency.
If you are looking for a quicker method, you can check out this post on sugar water for sick chickens. It's sugar and water. Great if you are missing something from this electrolyte recipe.
Homemade Electrolytes for Chickens
From a chick that isn't thriving to a chicken that isn't drinking enough in extreme heat. Homemade electrolytes for chickens is your answer.
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 teaspoons molasses OR 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together.
- Stir until completely combined.
Looking to Prevent The Need for Homemade Chicken Electrolyte?
I have not had the need to give my birds homemade electrolytes outside of a long period of extreme heat, which we rarely get here in Nova Scotia. But one of the things that we do as preventative measures is putting apple cider vinegar in chickens' water. It only takes roughly 1–2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (ACV) per gallon of water.
Make sure that your chickens always have access to water, even when traveling for long periods of time, this prevents dehydrated chickens in addition to travel stress.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can chickens have Gatorade? Plain Pedialyte or Gatorade is an option for your chickens, or you can mix up your homemade electrolytes using things you already have in your kitchen.
Can chickens drink warm water? Yes, chickens can drink warm water, but you do not want to give them water hotter than their body temperature. The adult chicken body temperature is between 105°F and 107°F (40.6° and 41.7°C)
Want More?
Chicken First Aid Kit: Keeping Medical Kit for Chickens
Home Remedies for Sour Crop in Chickens
How to Help An Egg-Bound Chicken
