Any one got any ideas whats up with my baby?

[vkp23]

I have a chick I hatched that is about three and a half weeks old. He was born with the top half of his beak missing up to his nose. He is eating and drinking just fine. Has loads of energy and feathers are coming in great. He's super sweet and it seems the only issue he has as far as function goes is that since the top part of his beak it missing he can't clean his feet well so I have to go in and clean his feet off for him every other day or so to keep from poo building up on his feet and causing infection. The thing I'm worried about is his size. He is very very tiny. His hatch mates are a little over 4x the size they where when they hatched. He is barely twice the size as when he hatched. He is literally like a third of the size of the rest. Even the midget silkies are bigger than him now. He is not part bantam. Mom is a standard dark Cornish and dad is a HUGE white rock. If all it is, is that he's going to be small I have no problem with that. What I'm worried about is internal defects. Even though he is for all intensive purposes fine, do you think I should be worried he may have a problem like an enlarged heart or something? Any ideas at all?

 

[teach1rusl]

Are you SURE he is eating just fine?? I would watch closely to make sure that he's actually getting food down, not just looking like he's eating (attempting to eat at the dish). Maybe put him in his own area for a day with a certain amount of food and see if it's actually disappearing. I guess my main worry is that he's TRYING to eat (looks like he's eating), but isn't actually getting much down due to not being able to pick crumbles up. I would hate that, because that would mean he's slowly starving if that's the case. So be sure about that part first.

 

[vkp23]

I know he's getting enough to eat. My husband and mother was saying the same thing. But he's getting enough. I can tell cause I always notice how all my chickens gullet (or what ever that pouch is that holds the food til it makes it to the stomach is called LOL) is totally full after they eat. Then the food makes it's way down and it's empty again. This little guy eats so much his little gullet will get as big if not bigger than his head. I was totally worried about that too but I keep an eye on him to make sure he's getting enough food. Make it deep enough for him to get his head far enough down to grab the food and all, and watch him to make sure he doesn't get pushed away by the bigger ones. I may go ahead and to that though just to make sure, but I'm fairly confident he's getting enough to eat.