5 week old Sexlink Chicks

[MAtencio]

Hi!
We have eleven 5 week old sex-link chicks (5 barred rock/ rhode island red and 6 rhode island red/white). They all seem healthy and happy but one of the black ones is tiny. It is still almost as small as it was 3 weeks ago. Other than being tiny it's development seems to be going right along with the other chicks as far as we can tell. It isn't being picked on by the others and always gets enough food and water. Is there anything to worry about?

 

[Wyandottes7]

As long as it is acting normal, it will likely be fine in the end. Some chicks just are stunted and grow slower than others. Sometimes, they have something internally wrong and will died eventually, but other times they grow up to be happy, healthy birds.

To encourage it to grow, give some high protein foods like scrambled eggs. Make sure that it doesn't get picked on by the others, too. Adding vitamins to the water would help as well. Most of all, little stunted chicks like yours just need time.

Is it possible that you got a bantam? Bantams are much smaller than full sized counterparts.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your chick!

 

[MAtencio]

Thank you! I hadn't considered that she might be a different breed, but that makes sense because her feathers have grey tips while the other black sex-links have red tipped feathers. So long as she is healthy, we love how cute and tiny she is.