8-week Silkie chick hardly has feathers?

[akitafriendakita]

I have an 8-week-old silkie chick who is feathering incredibly slow compared to his siblings. He looks like a big chick covered in some pin feathers/a few fuzzy feathers right now. Meanwhile, almost all his siblings have turned into fully round puffballs compared.

Is this normal? When is it safe to put him outside? I wanted to move my chickens outside soon together but it's also going to start hitting 45F at night here. Do I need to keep waiting for him to get feathers or is it safe for him? Note: he's my biggest heaviest chick so maybe that would help him? Probably not though!

I've included him (the brown awkward-looking one) next to his gray/blue sibling who has more feathers so you can see the difference!

 

[Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies]

It looks like he just has thicker feathers from the pictures. But if he is losing feathers, are barely has any, even at his age, it might be mites. Though I doubt it, as they are young. It might also be stress, especially if they are sneezing. If they are stressed, get them used to you and bring them treats. You can put them outside in weather warmer than around 50 degrees, but if it gets colder, just keep them in the coop. Although they are such pretty babies! Can you tell me the names?

 

[akitafriendakita]

It looks like he just has thicker feathers from the pictures. But if he is losing feathers, are barely has any, even at his age, it might be mites. Though I doubt it, as they are young. It might also be stress, especially if they are sneezing. If they are stressed, get them used to you and bring them treats. You can put them outside in weather warmer than around 50 degrees, but if it gets colder, just keep them in the coop. Although they are such pretty babies! Can you tell me the names?

I haven't named them yet due to not really knowing their genders! I've just been calling them by their colors like "gray" and "chocolate." That's very sweet btw!

I agree that's it likely not mites because he has been feathering slow since I got him, even when he was entirely inside and I hadn't put him outside yet (so there shouldn't have been any mites!) He's not balding or anything, he just grew his feathers significantly slower and all his siblings beat him to feathering.

The only difference that brown one had compared to his siblings is that he's always been pretty heavy and big. Even when I picked him up initially, he was bigger than all his siblings. Maybe it's just genetics, for some reason, he's doomed to feather slow.

 

[Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies]

Yeah, I agree. Hitting the gene lottery with silkies is hard. I have a showgirl and a bearded, just lost a black showgirl. They're pretty, but hard to tell what's going on. They sure are beautiful though!

 

[Fluffy_Moth_With_Silkies]

Also, are they sneezing? It sounds like a little "ch" with them shaking their head. If they are, it's definitely stress. This doesn't mean he's losing his feathers due to this, but it is still a problem.

 

[akitafriendakita]

Also, are they sneezing? It sounds like a little "ch" with them shaking their head. If they are, it's definitely stress. This doesn't mean he's losing his feathers due to this, but it is still a problem.

They don't sneeze much but they do sneeze sometimes here and there a few times a day (just seems like normal sneezing,) he seems fine and healthy. I let them outside for around 5-10 hours a day if it's nice out and he goes nuts/zooms around just like his feathered siblings and acts normal. Are chicks supposed to never sneeze though?

The only stress he seems to experience is just being picked up by me a few times a day when I put them away. I haven't seen him lose/drop any feathers, they're just not growing in basically. He doesn't have bald spots, has plenty of pin feathers, they're just incredibly slow to grow compared to the rest of his siblings.

Maybe it has to do with how he's eating? He used to only eat chick feed when I kept them in, but now can free range eat if he wants. I could watch him eat, maybe he's skipping out on his feed more compared to his siblings and I should force him to eat it more.