There has been some confusion in the Ostrich industry concerning the proper color of the liver in baby Ostrich chicks. It had been thought, in some countries, that the proper color of the liver should be YELLOW along with yellow colored skin.

Blue Mountain strongly feels that a yellow livered, yellow skinned chick is a good indication of an "unhealthy" and "malnutritioned" chick with a "malfunctioning" liver.

In this 1999 Study, Blue Mountain dissected some baby chicks in South Africa and in the United States. A detailed article on the findings and opinions is available in the Bulletins and Articles section on this web site under the following heading:

Yellow Livers On Baby Chicks Are Not Normal

Reading that article first will help you clearly understand the Yellow Liver Chick Syndrome and its causes.

Below are some photos and comments from that 1999 Study:

Photo 1 - Yellow Livered Chick Syndrome

This Photo 1 is a perfect example of the Yellow Liver Chick Syndrome. You can see the liver in the center of the picture with its two bright yellow lobes.

Just to the left of the liver is the heart at about the 10 o'clock position from the liver. The heart is also small, under-developed and of the incorrect color on this chick.

The liver normally generates Bile that is dark GREEN in color. Bile is pumped to the yolk sac to aid in fat digestion. Since the yolk sac is high in fats, it is imperative that bile gets to the yolk sac so the nutrients can be properly absorbed into the digestive system.

While some think that the yellow liver color is normal due to the yellow color of the yolk, Blue Mountain strongly disagrees with that philosophy in Ostrich. The yellow liver is yellow because there is NO GREEN BILE production--none whatsoever. Therefore, the yolk sac will not be properly absorbed and the chick will suffer malnutrition from this malfunctioning liver.

The yolk sac on the particular chick in Photo 1 was completely yellow--no sign of green bile anywhere.

Photo 2 - Proper Chick Liver Color

Photo 2 is a Blue Mountain fed chick in the United States with a "normal" color liver. You can see the perfectly reddish-brown liver just directly above the intestinal area of the chick--high in its chest cavity.

You also can see the heart laying right in the middle of the two lobes of the redish-brown liver. It is of normal color and size for a chick this age.

This photo also shows a yolk sac that is being properly absorbed for a chick that is 8 days of age as this one. You can clearly see the green BILE in the yolk sac and the sac is of proper color.

In this Study, we also dissected an unhatched chick (ready to pip) by removing it from the egg to see if the liver was yellow at this stage. While the liver from that chick was a lighter tan color, it was NOT bright yellow. There was also plenty of green bile production taking place in the unhatched chick. With the yolk sac being laid out on a table, the top 1/3 of the yolk sac was strewn with green bile while the bottom 2/3's of the yolk sac was still yellow. That would be a normal condition for an unhatched chick.

Photo 3 - Yellow Livered Chick Syndrome

Photo 3 is another chick with yellow liver chick syndrome. You can also see that the heart is terribly malformed and of the wrong color. It is obvious that this chick was not going to live much longer--if it did, it would have been a very poor growing bird with all of its organ problems.

It is the belief of Blue Mountain that the yellow liver chick syndrome is most certainly caused by nutritional deficiencies in the Breeder hen laying the egg this chick came from. The proof of our conviction is that when Breeder hens are properly fed with a good diet, the yellow liver chick syndrome disappears.

It will take the scientific community to exactly figure out WHY this occurs but it is our theory that the liver in the mother Hen is also malfunctioning due to poor feeding and nutritional deficiencies--this causes the hen to lay an egg with an inferior yolk sac as the Hen's liver plays a large role in that activity. Hence, the bile production in the embryo never begins, or it starts and then stops, causing the yellow liver chick syndrome.

Live chicks with a severe case of the yellow liver chick syndrome can usually be identified by turning them upside down and parting the feathers to view the belly skin. If it has a yellow coloration showing through the skin, it probably is a yellow livered chick.

A yellow livered chick is more susceptible to stress and bacterial infections as their immune system is compromised. This usually results in a much higher chick mortality rate.

Yellow livered chicks are often confused with chicks having Fading Chick Syndrome which clearly is a mis-diagnosis. The two syndromes are entirely different on post-mortem exam. But, symptoms prior to death can appear to be very similar.

For more complete details on this Study, click on the following link below:

Yellow Livers on Baby Chicks Are Not Normal