6 day old chick suddenly not eating much and mostly sleeping under heat plate

[Peachyfrog]

Have a batch of 8 chicks a lady hatched for me locally. They’re about 6 days old, got them home Sunday. One chick today has suddenly mostly stopped eating and is mostly staying under the heat plate. It is still drinking. Water has electrolytes and acv. I was concerned maybe she was too cold so tried putting heat lamp outside one area of the box. All the other chicks hung out there but this one stayed a min or two and then went back under the heat plate, so doesn’t seen temperature related. Tried offering boiled egg yolk, doesn’t like it/won’t eat it (none of them will). Any other ideas of what to try to help? I’ve read sugar water but seems more for after they’re weak from shipping and this one’s wasn’t shipped and been fine since Sunday until today. Running out of ideas, please help!

 

[CHlCKEN]

Try offering scrambled egg.

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

Try offering scrambled egg.

x2. Scrambled eggs help make them stronger and fatty them up.

 

[Peachyfrog]

Will try though it wouldn’t eat hard boiled egg yolk so not holding my breath it’ll eat it

 

[rayrose]

Turn the feed into a mash.

 

[Peachyfrog]

I had stepping out for couple hours and now when I came back, that little one is out foraging with the rest and acting normal! No idea what it was, but she seems to be improving/over it. Will continue to watch her closely though to make sure she doesn't downturn again. Thanks for all the ideas!

 

[Peachyfrog]

And another downturn last night. Seems to have a little more energy this morning but consistently not pooping a lot and it’s always green whereas everyone else has brown poop. Apologies for the poop picture. Pics of normal other chick poop next to green non-normal ones.

Also won’t eat boiled egg, scrambled egg (even with feed sprinkled on top) or feed mash. Looks like pecking around a good bit but not actually eating a lot. Younger than I normally would but would it be safe to try some fresh mealworm (freshly killed of course) and grit? Just want to get some protein in the little one...

 

[Peachyfrog]

For those reading this thread later, I got her to start eating after giving her a few headless mealworms. Her poop turned around to brown after earring well for a couple days. Best guess from research is green poop was just due to under nutrition (though in other cases could be liver failure). I offered grit after the mealworms which she apparently ate too mich of which them caused her crop to not empty for couple days, but that cleared on its own. Shortly after that at 2 weeks old, she started showing cross beak (likely the root cause of her eating issues just wasn’t visible yet. She could eat and drink mash on her own for about a week then had to start hand feeding her “torpedo” food (raw egg mixed with feed ground to flour and a touch of coconut oil). Feeding 4x a day. She’s a little smaller than the others but otherwise doing great!

 

[Mellowmalt]

inspiratinal story but that little one like you say had some underlying issues and still has. Will it be ok with such severe crossbeak? I've never seen it so bad.
Crossbeak is caused by a deficiency from what I've read.
If you have not yet given it some bakers or brewers yeast I would recommend you get some, mix it into the water sparingly - it's like concentrated vitamin powder so aim for 2% and should have the right vitamins specifically for helping with cross beak. While it's growing there might be a chance it can rectify itself.

 

[Peachyfrog]

Completely possible there was something else going on in addition that he/she got over. As of now, the only remaining issue is the cross beak, seems perfectly healthy/happy otherwise and gaining weight daily, albeit smaller than the others due to the difficulties at the beginning.

From all the reading I've done and the Facebook support group for cross beak specifically I'm now a member of, cross beak is due to either genetics or something was off during incubation (I did not incubate this batch of chicks myself). He/she can live a perfectly happy and mostly normal life, even with it this severe, however, may or may not be able to eat/drink of it's own (we'll see as it continues to evolve over the next few months). May also need periodic baths or help grooming as well.

It is a deformity of the skull, so sadly no, there is no chance of it rectifying itself over time and there is nothing you can do to try and help it be less severe.

I have never read or heard of it being due to any sort of deficiency. I would be very curious as to where you read that from...