Yesterday Pepper appeared to have hiccups for a while. As I have never heard of this before, I researched on the internet and chicken forums and found that other chicken keepers had experienced this too.
They described exactly what Pepper was doing, it looked like a sneeze but sounded like a hiccup. It didn’t seem to distress the hen and she returned to normal after a short period of time.
I then found a video clip of a hen with hiccups and it was exactly what Pepper was doing yesterday. I was reassured that I was not alone and they said it was harmless.
Hiccups are a spasm of the diaphragm and birds don’t have a diaphragm, so technically you could say they can’t hiccup. Birds have an air sac which draws air in like bellows in a blacksmiths fire pit. Birds can get spasms of their air sac from time to time so this could be classed as hiccups.
Either way I know that what I saw Pepper doing yesterday, looked like hiccups and the video shows another hen doing the same thing so I therefore conclude that chickens can get hiccups.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I think you’ve scientifically proven that hens get hiccups now!
:-p
Thank you! If you put “do chickens get hicups” into google there is a video of a chicken with hiccups and it is exactly the same as what Pepper was doing.
One of my hens started hiccupping last night. She only does it once in awhile. I’ve since read that it can be a symptom of gape worms and if left untreated can lead to death.
Pepper is my only hen that gets hiccups from time to time. I did loads of research and I too panicked a bit about gape worm. However I then found other people who had healthy hens that get hiccups from time to time. Pepper is two years old, happy and healthy and laying eggs and gets hiccups perhaps three or four times a year. That is why I concluded that hens can indeed get hiccups. As long as it is only occasionally and no other symptoms you probably don’t need to worry.
I was really worried when this started Happening to One of my hens and am very glad I ” Googled ” it. Thanks for letting us Know that this is Not something Which will Harm her!
It never caused Pepper any problem at all. I have been writing this blog for two and a half years now and this post still gets the most hits so I think hiccuping hens is more common than we think.
One of my chooks is doing this tonight. I got rather worried it was not a good sign and not sleeping through the night would end badly for my Miss Katie chook. Thank you for posting this
I am glad it has put your mind at rest. Chickens do occasionally get hiccups and it isn’t harmful to them. Oddly enough I wrote that post so many years ago and yet is still remains one of the top, most read, posts.
I’ve been having to give my hen Isabel oral antibiotics for an infection and tonight after her evening dose she started sneeze/hiccuping. I just now put her to bed so I am hoping she will be ok…she ate some banana (one of her favorites) so I think she may be ok.
I hope she will be okay. Eating her treat is a good sign. Hiccups are harmless and over the years since this post I have heard many of my girls hiccup occasionally.
My ROOSTER is having the same thing happen. Should I be concerned?
I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about. It never caused any problem in my girls.