5 week old chick is the size of a 2 week old chick.

[HotChicken623]

Photo of them a couple days old. All the same size.
View attachment 2589900

Wow. Maybe a case of dwarfism? I know it can happen to ducks. Have you been able to feel her to see if she's a good weight? She looks very healthy besides the obvious fact of looking like she just hatched! That is so odd. Let me tag a few others here to see if they have any advice.

@Eggcessive
@sourland

Thank you so much! The more help, the merrier! She seems fine, when I can catch her! Lol. The 2 raised with the broody aren't fond of people yet....unless you have food. Everything about her seems fine, keeps up with momma and the other chick, doesn't get picked on by hens, eats, scratches dirt and dustbathes. Just a tiny gal. Hoping it's not failure to thrive? I've read that with slow growing chicks that may be the case? The other salmon faverolle is 4 times her size and almost fully feathered! Fingers crossed she's fine and just a slow grower!

 

[NatJ]

Yes, all of that is correct! She's definitely smaller by weight also. Much smaller and lighter in weight than the others. She seems to still be completely fine other than that.

If she seems healthy and active, and is eating/drinking/pooping normally, I wouldn't worry--some chickens just are smaller than others. If you are ever selecting chickens for breeding, it's something to pay attention to, but if you just want healthy pets it shouldn't matter.

 

[HotChicken623]

If she seems healthy and active, and is eating/drinking/pooping normally, I wouldn't worry--some chickens just are smaller than others. If you are ever selecting chickens for breeding chickens, it's something to pay attention to, but if you just want healthy pets it shouldn't matter.

She seems healthy, but doesn't look great physically. Feather growth is ugly coming in, feathers are just naked pins and the ones that came in seem to be crooked. Maybe she's my "ugly duckling" lol.

 

[NatJ]

Update on chick today. Here you can really see how terrible the feathers look and there is a part of the skin that was always redder, but now looks very irritated. Poor thing. She still is eating and drinking and flitting around though.

That is really odd.

Any chance of her being sunburned? Or the others picking at her?

Have you checked for mites or lice or other parasites?

I can't think of any good explanations for the condition of her feathers and skin, so I'm just throwing out guesses here

 

[HotChicken623]

That is really odd.

Any chance of her being sunburned? Or the others picking at her?

Have you checked for mites or lice or other parasites?

I can't think of any good explanations for the condition of her feathers and skin, so I'm just throwing out guesses here

It's been pretty cloudy lately, today was the first day of some real sun, but possibly? That area as her feathers started growing was always red underneath and I wondered about it, but she seemed fine so I didn't worry. Now it looks so irritated. I've never seen any of the chickens or other chicks pick on it, but that doesn't mean they aren't when I'm not around. I've only seen them try to go after the chicks not raised by the broody and that's through a fence. I haven't seen any bugs or anything either when I held her and I've never seen any on any of my others birds. Not to say any of that would be out of the question. Just none of my other hens or chicks have had any of those issues. I wish I had taken more photos when she was a couple weeks old to show how odd her feathering started out. I just hoped and thought she was developing slower, but now with the way her feathers and skin are....I'm concerned.

 

[Jeanw]

Maybe some vetiricyn spray would help her irritation. Amazon sells this brand.

 

[StepfordCuckoos]

We had a Frost White Legbar who was incredibly small compared to the others in the brooder with her. I actually posted a thread here back when they were chicks because I was so concerned. Happy to say that she ended up growing just fine and is the size of a normal chicken now. Maybe that is the case with your little one?

 

[Cryss]

She seems to be growing and has made it to ten weeks so maybe she’s catching up?

 

[sassychickens76]

Yay!

 

[InterestingChickens]

She definitely is growing, just very slowly. lol. Her feathers come in soooo slow. The back of her neck still isn’t feathered and her legs have just started. I’ll update again in a week or so!!

Please do!