Help with a runt that doesn't seem to be growing

My chicks are 10 days old. I have 5 Rhode Island Reds, 6 Bared Plymouth Rocks, 5 Speckled Sussex. I am a first time chick momma!

One of my Bared Plymouth Rocks is a runt. She was smaller than the rest when she arrived here (Mail order) and has remained as such to the point where it doesn't look as though she has grown at all. She is about 1/2 the size of the rest of the flock. My other babies have a lot of their wing feathers and starting to get their tail feathers, among others. She is barely starting to get any feathers at all and the few wing feathers she is getting seem to stick outwards on the sides instead of lay down along her sides. She appears to be eating and drinking just fine.

My question is that I am wondering if this slow growth and development is normal for runts or should I worry about her? She seems to be my daughter's favorite of the flock!

How is she acting otherwise? We had one that we lost at about 4 days old and one that was a bit smaller but now at 8 weeks is doing awesome and catching up. From what I have heard after the first week your somewhat out of the woods. Hopefully she\he will catch up. We have one that isn't feathered like the rest at 8 weeks and we think its a Roo at this point but has grown bigger. Good luck

8675309j said:

How is she acting otherwise? We had one that we lost at about 4 days old and one that was a bit smaller but now at 8 weeks is doing awesome and catching up. From what I have heard after the first week your somewhat out of the woods. Hopefully she\he will catch up. We have one that isn't feathered like the rest at 8 weeks and we think its a Roo at this point but has grown bigger. Good luck

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She seems to be acting the same as the others, full of life and zest. My daughter calls her "Zippy" because the minute we took her out of the box she was shipped in and her little feet hit the brooder floor she was the only one that really ran around a ton! She kept zipping all of the place, hence her name "ZIPPY". I am truly hopping that she will catch up, out of 16 birds she tends to be a favorite!

She should be fine then. Just keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't get sick. I prefer the slower-growing ones because to me it means they are less affected by the hormones hatcheries often feed to their chicks.

As long as she doesn't get sick, and isn't acting that way now, she'll be caught up by the time they are 7-8 months old.

I had one I was worried about too. She looked nothing like her sisters. Small, very few feathers. She still looked like a fluffy chick when the others were covered in fethers. But she caught up! She still isnt quite as feathered as they are and she is my smallest, but she is almost there.

All your help is making me feel so much better about her. She does seem fine. So I am hoping that she will catch up and continues to be the spit fire that she showed us that first few hours!

I have a lil one like that also, she seems fine, eats, drinks and moves just as fast as the other but she looks the same as when I brought her home, I am watching her and hope she is just a slow starter.
Should I be doing anything special for her, feed extra, or separate from others . She does not seem sick in any way.... or should I just leave her in with the other 5 chicks

WDLchick,
LIke you, I have a "runt" born on April 9, but doesn't look the same as her sisters in terms of growth. She barely has any wing feathers, but she eats, sleeps, pecks, drinks just like all the rest, and she isn't getting pecked at. My plan is to just keep an eye on her and as long as she's doing okay, I'm going to let nature let her grow at her own pace. I got mine from a hatchery; they're one week old today. They were all vaccinated for Marek's disease, and they eat starter/grower feed with 18% protein. They have electrolytes and probiotics in their water, and I keep the brooder very clean. They don't like it as warm as some of the other posts/websites suggested, so they're brooder is kept currently at about 85 degrees. She's not a roo, as she's a sex-linked Golden Buff. I think she's just slow to grow. She's one week old today, and I'm hoping that by crossing that one week line, she's out of the woods in terms of maybe being sickly. She's never been, but I read that if they're not going to survive, it usually happens within the first 7 days of life. Keep me posted on the progress of your lil one! I'll do the same!

I have one that apparently had an overload of coccidosis and we almost lost her so once she was nursed back to health the other had passed her up by far. She spent a week at about 1/2 the size of the others. I made it a point for the next week to take her out and give her extra helping of a chick stick treat and to make sure that she had uninterrupted access to water a few times a day. She still sleeps a bit more than the others but she does just fine and gets bullied less than any other chick by the roo/head hen? She is still smaller than the others but not as much as she was last week. I only take her out to give her a little extra treat once a day since I see her drinking plenty on her own now.

my little one is still the smallest she is starting to fill out with all her feathers now , I think she will just be a small girl. She is a fighter and I have watched her pick on the bigger girls, and chase than around the brooder. thanks for your kind words and tips