A month old chickie with very retarded in growth... Update :((((

[lroth217]

I am no expert, but it sounds like she needs more protein (and the rice won't give it to her) and if she doesn't like her chick feed, nor boiled eggs, it will be tricky. I am not sure, but I think the Mills Organic Unmedicated Chick Starter that lbartsch mentioned is 20% protein and that is what she needs. Some chick starter is only 16% - 18% which is fine after 8 weeks, but she needs extra. Try giving her (and Greta too of course) hard boiled egg mixed with plain Greek-style yogurt, really mashed up, and then add a little of the chick starter to make a kind of lumpy paste. Mine love this!! If they don't take to it at first, keep trying, but make sure you only make a little at a time because it needs to be fresh! They shouldn't be eating it if it has been sitting out for more than - say 30 min. Play around with the consistency by adding more yogurt or more feed until they really take to it. Then you can make more and you won't have to worry about how long it's out because it will disappear quickly. Then start to decrease the amount of time they have it available to eat until you only give it to them once a day, say for breakfast. Hopefully she will be eating the starter the rest of the time.

Side note: They do not like the way it feels on the outside of their beaks so there will be plenty of "beak-wiping" on whatever surface is in their path while they eat it.

Also I don't believe you mentioned grit but especially with her eating rice, be sure that if the chick starter you choose does not have grit contained in it that you provide them with grit. VERY important! Chick grit or even canary grit (the kind without extra calcium or oyster shell!) will do.

Also, here is a link to, yes I am serious, a chicken poop chart (with pictures!!!) so you can see that your baby is pooping normally!!! http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.msg215714#msg215714

She looks good and is feathering so that is good. As krissteff mentioned she may just need more heat and that is why she is sleeping and peeping a lot. At four weeks they should be down to about 75 -80 degree temp but maybe she needs to be at 85 - 90 with her size.

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Forgot to mention that if you don't mind ordering on line and paying shipping, My Pet Chicken carries a different 20% Organic Unmedicated Chick Starter: http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Organic-Feed/Organic-Chick-Starter-Feed-p413.aspx
Murray McMurray has an Organic Chick Starter that is 22% protein, or an Organic Chick Grower that is 20%. http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/certified_organic_complete_feeds_.html

Again, I'm no expert but I know that when one of my babies seems to not be "right" I try as many things as I can to help her out and I read BYC forum A LOT.

 

[Chickanoob]

I was looking at her color difference and she has the chick markings of a Light Brahma or a Bantam. Which actually grow alot slower than their mates of the same age but they become the biggest egg layers & the fattest chicks you might have. As for her being picky about her food, my light bantam is like that too. From day one she didn't like the food I was told to feed her. I had to mix stuff & then started making seperate bowls for her (3 or 4 different things each in their own bowl) so she could go back and forth between food. She's doing great now. Just give her time. I am new to the chick thing myself, just started a few weeks ago, but a few weeks teaches you quite alot

 

[Dudu]

Apologies for abandoning this thread. I "abandoned" the board altogether for a week and only came to read the link given below, and big thanks for it, that gives some hope!

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Thanks a lot to all of you for the wishes, I do hope Berta will catch up...

For now it looks like this:
* I did cocchi prevention (since there was no blood in their poop, but just in case) for both of them, Sulfadimidine in water for 3 days as per manufacturer's recommendations.
* following the suggestion of my partner, I removed any and all additional treats (veggies, lettuce, rice, greenfinch food etc) for 24 hours and only left their own Starter. The result was that Berta's interest in it increased dramatically. Now I don't give them anything but water and the Starter, and Berta is eating it well.
* following the suggestion posted here, I also moistened the said starter and they both ate it very well. But Berta's (and of course Greta's!) crop was already pretty full with the dry starter anyway that she had eaten.
* I did use to offer them yogurt and they drank some of it, but weren't too crazy about it, either one of them...
* because they are both house chickens, I make sure now to make use of the sun - as soon as it comes into our back yard, I put their crate outside and put part of it in the sun, the other part in the shade. I can see how they sunbathe and then go into the shade to eat and drink.There seems to be a lot more activity on Berta's side and no miserable peeping when she's out in the warmth. (They're the only things in our family that truly seem to appreciate and actually enjoy the HOT Maltese summer, LOL.)
* Berta's poop right now seems VERY normal according to the poop chart and my own intuition/limited chicken knowledge. It seems perfect actually. Fingers crossed....

What worries me is that she remains so frail - even if new feathers are growing, and the crop is seen full, yet she hasn't got enough strength to fly up the cage door like she used to, or to sit on the perch. A lot of drowsiness is gone, but still she spends a lot of time sleeping. But not looking/behaving so miserable anymore, she just sleeps. Also in my lap when I pick her up from the crate, she loves it a lot.

lroth217, thank you VERY much for your detailed answer. I am saving this page for future reference too.

I will see what the % of protein is in this Starter and I am sure we can order something online if it's better for her.

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Oh, tell me about it!! How true! I've already had to deal with Chicken Pox and another sneezing baby on the farm and many other little things here and there....

Thank you so VERY much for the helpful answers and encouragement, and sorry again to have left this thread without replying for a while.

 

[Dudu]

Photos taken today, both girls almost 6 weeks old:

Sleepy baby:

 

[lroth217]

Sounds like things are really improving!!!! She and Greta are so beautiful!! Please keep us updated in the weeks to come!!

 

[Gypsy07]

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Yup, just as you'd expect. Good call. If you're hungry enough, you learn to eat what you're given. I always chuckle inwardly at people who say things like 'My cat's so fussy, she'll only eat poached salmon fillets' or 'My dog refuses to eat dog biscuits and just has to have the same cooked dinner as the rest of the family.' Yeah, right! Talk about spoiling your pets! Easy solution: Feed them what you want them to eat, and NOTHING else. In all but a very very few cases, when they're hungry enough, they'll eat it.

My personal opinion on feeding chicks (and I know there are LOADS of people who disagree) is to give them chick crumbles and nothing else. I only start offering other stuff once they're outside in the growers coop and eating growers pellets. I figure that once they're all grown up they'll have plenty of time to eat all the extra treats they want, but while they're developing it's so important to get the correct nutrition into them that I don't give them the opportunity to eat anything else.

I've never had a dead chick, a sickly chick, a weak chick or a 'failure to thrive' chick yet so I guess it's working for me!

P.S. Your little chick is most curious. Going by feather development, she looks to be about 18-21 days old. By six weeks she should be almost fully feathered, and even allowing for breed differences she's developing ridiculously slowly. The dark cuckoo one looks just like you'd expect. I hope she keeps going and gets there in the end!

 

[Dudu]

lroth217, thanks a lot for the encouragement!

Gypsy07, I know what you mean, but, you know, a loving and worried mommy's instincts kicked in. For now she really seems to be eating her Starter, but e.g. this morning she wasn't eating that well and I threw some greenfinch food to see if she had any appetite at all, and she practically attacked it, so she's ok I guess. Still I can't stop worrying about this baby and holding my breath to see a progress in her growth.

Thanks again so much to everyone for your wishes and comments.

 

[Dudu]

I just wanted to let everyone know that my sweetie Berta passed away on Saturday evening. After what seemed like a good improvement (at least for my eyes as I could tell the slightest differences in her behaviour and condition), she had a relapse again on Thursday, waking up and only drinking and not eating, but she ate Friday morning when I made her chick crumbs into a mash. But later on in the day she stopped eating and pretty much drinking also, and her poop started to smell like cat poop. (These babies have pooped on me enough times for me to distinguish the smell for sure.)

Then she just slept, I put a bottle of very warm water wrapped in a towel and separated her from Greta as she could accidentally step on her. (They could still see each other in the same crate).

Then I took her on my chest for a while and she just lay there sleeping calmly, at times breathing faster and then calming down again. Then I put her in the crate when she seemed most comfortable and she continued sleeping.

I then went to iron some clothes because I had to, and attend to our other 4 chickies upstairs, and when I came down, my baby, my little birdie had already left us.

She had been with us for 6 weeks and a little more, since the day she hatched (well, a few days after hatching when we found her in our chicken yard).

She may have been a tiny chickie, but she left a HUGE void in my heart. I'm sure you know how it can feel, I'm new new to chickens but I am already seeing how amazing they are.

 

[ChickasaurusRex]

I'm sorry for your loss...

 

[PoultryPedia]

SO sorry! It seems like she was a very sweet chickie and it will hurt to miss her. I'm glad you took such kind care of her.