Naked Chick! Yikes!

I successfully hatched a bunch of eggs in my incubator (on day 21) and after a day and 1/2 with no action from remaining eggs, was ready to clean it out when I heard peeping. Well, this one pipped and half-zipped and then spent another day furiously trying to get out. I ended up using a q-tip and bacitracin and took his top off, left him to do the rest. He got out and about 6 hours later still had about 1/4 shell on his rump. Again, bacitracin and a q-tip and left him in the incubator.

This morning he was walking around and chirping, but he only really has feathers on his head, wings, a little on neck, none on his back! I have him in a brooder and he has had water several times, a little moistened chick starter, and is running around looking fine, except.....

he looks like a poor piece of meat walking around! I think he's going to make it, but he just looks so pitiful. I can't put him in with the other chicks because he is half their size and NAKEY!

Anyone had this experience? Perhaps I shouldn't have helped him because he's a runt and I should've let natural selection occur?

I've looked all over this site and the internet and can't really find information on the lack of feathers. He has seriously bonded with me and is this minute chirping at me because he wants me to come over and swaddle him again. Sigh.....I'm so whipped.

Interesting I've never heard of an almost naked baby chick, I found this link a couple of days ago: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2307-featherless-chicken-creates-a-flap.html#.UhvKG5K2ZdM it's not relevant to this case though. Maybe your chick will grow out some feathers as it grows? I would be interested in seeing pictures.

Here is his picture. We've named him Frazier after the fighter! I thought about Tyson first, but realized it had a poor chicken connection.

See how meaty his whole back is? He does look better now, though, than he did this morning. He is eating and drinking and running around. And looking at his big beautiful brothers in the next cage!

it will get feathers, maybe they got pulled off in the shell

mstricer said:

it will get feathers, maybe they got pulled off in the shell

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It also looks like whatever down he had is stuck together with fluid from the shell drying up. I had this happen to one of my chicks that spent too much time in the shell after pipping. He was glued to the membrane and shell and I had to slowly clean him with warm damp paper towel to try to get the membrane/shell off of him. My chick was so glued together that he couldn't even walk until it had been cleaned. With yours I imagine he will be just fine without any intervention.

My grandfather used to tell us about a chicken they had who never grew any feathers. His mother knitted him a sweater to keep him from being sunburned. His name was Skinny.

I have seen this several times just keep him separate from the others till he feathers out so they don't pick on him. He will be fine

I also had to help one of my chicks out and it was featherless too! I had counted the days and this little guy had gone 28 days before the shell cracked. Once it cracked the chick was still in the next morning so I helped him out. That was three months ago and he/she still has no feathers and is half the size of the other chicks in the clutch. I had raised three Cochins from babies and had two hens and a rooster, so I thought maybe this resulted from breeding brother to sister? I bought the three from a local breeder as brother/sister. Of the whole clutch three were dark colored like the dad and three were light colored like the mom(s). One died shortly after birth, another was pecked to death a few days later. I have two light and two dark and all appear to be hens except for the naked one, it's comb appears smaller than the rest, but then again, the chick is half the size as the others.