6-day-old chicks not gaining much weight

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The skin you see under it's wing is normal, even as an adult they'll have a "bald" spot under their wing. I still recommend stopping all treats, including the mealworms (orange poop) with is extra protein which can cause softer poop. All chicks at this age needs are warmth, a clean environment and their chick starter. I use medicated the first month then switch to Flock Raiser which I ferment. If you want to continue vitamins fine but I prefer no supplements as their feed is balanced and all the nutrition they require.

You state the Legbar is loosing weight, is it being kept from the food? Bullied? Do you see it eating/drinking/pooping? Is it active? Smaller than the rest? Did you get it from a hatchery? Breeder? Hatched?
 
Ok thanks, I won't worry about the bald spots. Yes, I stopped the treats after thursday morning.

The legbar is not being kept from the food - she eats all the time and her crop gets big. She just keeps losing all the weight again. She dropped 8g last night. She seems to be drinking fine. I've seen some watery poops from her.

She's not super active beyond eating/drinking. She does get excited when I put my hand in the brooder, hoping for a treat. She used to be the biggest, now she's the smallest. I got her from a farm but they may have got her from a hatchery; not sure. She has been vaccinated for Marek's.

I'm going to get some peremethrin to have on hand and check for mites after dark. Would it be bad to treat them with it just in case? It seems like a parasite problem (either external or internal) to me because of how she eats and then loses all the weight.
 
The Legbar appears to be a bit under the weather (eyes are not wide and bright), and it's wings are overtaking its body, which is a sign it's not growing. At this age, they grow so quickly that even a couple days of setback due to some issue will result in a noticeable lack of growth.

One of the most common causes of this is constipation due to not getting enough water. Also, if treats that have cellulose are given or even too many meal worms, a chick can suffer from constipation.

I recommend a half teaspoon of coconut oil immediately, right now, don't wait. Even if this isn't the issue, the oil will do no harm. Then I would give it some Poultry Nutri-drench just in case it has failure-to-thrive syndrome. It could help her to catch up.
 
Dandelyon said:
I have three chicks that are 6 days old today. I've been weighing them for a couple of days and they're not keeping up with what I've read they should. The Orpington and Australorp are about 42 grams, and the Legbar is 46. I think they're supposed to be close to 60g by now. They were 35, 37, and 40 three days ago.

I've been feeding them mostly chick starter feed (nonmedicated), with treats of dried mealworms, fresh oregano, and a little hard boiled egg (half a yolk on Monday, half a full egg today). I provide grit a few times a day. I put some immune boosting vitamin mix in their water the first few days, and then some corid starting yesterday as a preventative, though I kept it up today because of worry about the weight and their poops.

Their poops are soft and sometimes runny. This morning there were some orangish ones - didn't actually look like blood, but orangier than normal. Everything that came out today (and I observed it from each of them) was their normal greenish brown to brown.

They're all very active and eat a lot and drink a lot and I wouldn't have thought anything was wrong except I looked up weight charts.

Should I keep doing the corid in case it's coccidiosis? Or would it be better to switch back to the vitamins? (I think I read you shouldn't do both at once.) Is the soft poop normal (I think I read that can happen when you feed them fresh greens), or should I be worried about it?

Here's a picture of them from yesterday; it looks like their bodies aren't growing fast enough for their wings :/

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No treats until 3 weeks old. They need 20 % starter grower feed for best weight gain. I used medicated to protect against coccidiosis. No extra treats without chick grit. Treats 10 % or less of diet when do add and limit to dried mealworms and greens. I would add sav a chick electrolytes and minerals to water first 5 days then weekly to boost them. Allow to have food/water 24/7.
 
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When you weigh them are you weighing them at the same time each morning before their crops are full? If you are weighing at the same time every morning, and their crops are empty, a loss of 8 grams is not good.

If you can, send me a list of their weights and i will put it in a spreadsheet to see how it looks.
 
Thanks for trying to help everyone. I know I'm a worrywart - it seems like I can find symptoms of every problem that I read about. But it really seems like losing weight at this age and size can't be normal :(

@ChickNanny13, ok I won't use the permethrin without actual evidence. I'm keeping them in a big cardboard box in my guest bathroom. I'm using a heat plate and the ambient temperature had been about 70 degrees until today when someone suggested they might be too cold (though they don't act like it) so I've let the room get up to 75 (they don't act too hot now either).

@azygous, I haven't figured out how to get her to eat very much of the coconut oil yet. She thought it was gross plain; I tried mixing it with some of her food and she ate all the non-oily parts around the edges and barely touched the oily part.

@Melky, I'm feeding them a chick starter feed I got from the farm I got the chicks from. i think it's 19% protein.

@casportpony, I'm trying to weigh them every morning and every evening. They've usually eaten a little bit by the time I get there in the morning, but not much (I'm not super scientific about it though). The 8g drop was from a mostly full crop in the evening to a mostly empty crop in the morning. Here are the weights I have (in grams):

Age/time-of-day Orp Aus LegBar
3/afternoon 37 35 44
4/morning 38 36 40
4/evening 41 37 45
5/morning 41 37 42
6/morning 40 37 42
6/evening 42 42 46
7/morning 42 42 42
7/evening 43 45 41
8/morning 45 41 38
8/evening 47 49 42
9/morning 44 46 34*
9/evening 52 51 41

The * is the 8g drop this morning that really scares me. She doesn't have enough g's to afford that rate! She has eaten a lot today, at least (and is still at it). I've seen several normal looking poops out of her recently too (as far as I can tell).
 

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