I have a SLW one of 5 however he or she is not developing properly at all I consider him a him! He looks like a Roo he has all the correct feathering except his comb has never developed fully and is not red He does not crow He does not have wattles He is considerably smaller than his brothers and spends a lot of his time hunched up The other roos (even his brothers) try to mount him like a Hen sometimes He is just really weird as a chick he was no different to the other but as they matured he just failed to develop properly I am going to cull him but I am just curious about what might have happened as he developed to be the runt of the litter so to speak or can you get mixed gender birds that are neither one or the other? Thanks
Okay, you know this is just screaming for a pic, right? I don't think it necessarily means the bird has both genders, but that's sure the first thing folks always think. I think a bird can just have something wrong with it and not develop properly, doesn't mean it has gender issues.
I actually think he is just a runt and has not been growing properly for sometime in fact he seems to be losing weight rapidly. I think he is on his way out We have waited for several months to see what he would develop into just in case he was a late starter but I found him laying on his side yesterday being picked on by some if the other birds He is not obviously sick but something is not right and the rest of the flock seem to know it. I will take a Photo on Sunday but later that day I am going to dispatch him alongside a few other Roos that need to go however as I am not 100% sure why he is like he is he will not be going in the freezer with the others.
x2 Sorry to hear about your fella. I had a SLW chick do the same thing...only he/she never made beyond 5 weeks....just never grew. Stayed the same size as a 3 day old chick. Found it dead in the coop one morning. It sounds like he has internal/systemic problems...often kidney problems will cause an animal to be much smaller and not fully develop....but there is a host of other things to...just the "never do well" of the bunch. Hopefully non-contagious....some chicken diseases can cause lack of development and unthriftiness which are transmissible to others in the flock. I agree it sounds like culling is the best as something is amiss. BTW...it is my experience that mounting isn't always a sign of mating but can also be a sign of dominance in the animal world. Lady of McCamley
I agree with the other posters---he probably has some sort of internal problem, and is a runt as a result. I once had a chick like that; she lived to 12 weeks of age at the same size as a 4 week old. She seemed happy, but I found her dead in her pen one day. I also had a similar runt, from a different hatch, a cockerel that was really low in the rooster pecking order. He was small, had a tiny comb and wattles, and didn't crow regularly until he was about 9 months old. Then he suddenly grew up, and within a few weeks was as mature looking as my other birds. Your rooster may eventually become normal, or he may not. Culling may be preferable.
Sorry for the delayed reply he didn't make it to Sunday. I found him on his side on Saturday and unwilling to get up. He had gone down hill very rapidly over the past few days and probably had not been developing properly for several weeks so I have put him down. I had intended to wait until Sunday as I had planned to cull several other Roosters for meat. Well that did not go too well my digital thermometer went haywire and I ended up scalding the birds (and me) in excessively hot water so end result three birds gone and nothing in the freezer! We only get our dustbin emptied on a Monday every fortnight so now have to wait until 28th/29th to do the rest.
Could of been a runt, or had some sort of health problem... could of been cocci, did you notice any red poo?
