Baby chick with MUCH shorter body than siblings

[Rarabri89]

Hi there,

I recently hatched my first batch of eggs. I ordered them off Ebay. They are of Black sex link breeding, A RIR father and barred rock mothers. Ive ended up with 5 beautiful, strong little hens. So lucky I know!!

Now they all look fairly similar, completely black with little cream bellies. Their all growing good, all have wing feathers developing and have shown a willing to learn different chicken behaviors over the last 5 days.

I haven't actually measured their body length, but just from looking you can see one is noticeably a different shape, kind of love heart shaped, compared to oval of the others. I wasn't worried about it until my family came round this morning to see them and my brother asked, 'why is that one so little'.

I don't think its that she is smaller. She just looks more compact if you like. A little wider and about a quarter of the overall length shorter. Length being as you look at them directly from above, sort of chest fluff to butt fluff. Shes the only one out of the 5 to have distinct facial markings that look different too, oh and she had a little trouble pushing her poop all the way out one time and it dried. so i had to help her out.

Is everything going to be okay? Shes been crying all day since I was holding her for a while whilst doing her butt. When I return shes fine. Many thanks, R.

 

[rosemarythyme]

She might be a runt, or there might be something wrong. Hard to tell but as long as she's eating and drinking normally I wouldn't be overly concerned. The poop problems may or may not be related to her being tinier but you're aware of it so continue to keep an eye on it. I currently have a runt but she's very active and does everything the other chicks do, so they can do just fine.

 

[Rarabri89]

She might be a runt, or there might be something wrong. Hard to tell but as long as she's eating and drinking normally I wouldn't be overly concerned. The poop problems may or may not be related to her being tinier but you're aware of it so continue to keep an eye on it. I currently have a runt but she's very active and does everything the other chicks do, so they can do just fine.

Thank you, that's good to know, she is definitely doing the same as all the others, in fact for her smaller size, she sure knows how to dominate the feed bowl she doesn't seem like a runt as such. She just seems different. Can the runt have a dominate personality over the others?

Was wondering whether maybe its because she had a mother that was different. I know the 7 eggs I received came for a relatively small flock of 8 mamas with a lone papa but its proven very difficult to get any additional information about the flock from the ebay seller. Out of the 5 I have, 2 pairs seem like a set of twins/copies, if that makes sense. Like 1 pair stocky and mega fluffy, and 1 pair that look a little more streamline and wiley, and then her haha.

I've grown super attached, I could't bare to think she, or any of them might not do so well. R

 

[rosemarythyme]

Can the runt have a dominate personality over the others?

Was wondering whether maybe its because she had a mother that was different. I know the 7 eggs I received came for a relatively small flock of 8 mamas with a lone papa but its proven very difficult to get any additional information about the flock from the ebay seller.

Being a runt doesn't affect their personality. Mine doesn't know she's smaller!

I was going to ask if maybe her parentage was different from the others, but didn't want to imply that the seller was being dishonest, or perhaps just disorganized. Entirely possible that her breed makeup is slightly different, or maybe her mother's even.

 

[Rarabri89]

Being a runt doesn't affect their personality. Mine doesn't know she's smaller!

I was going to ask if maybe her parentage was different from the others, but didn't want to imply that the seller was being dishonest, or perhaps just disorganized. Entirely possible that her breed makeup is slightly different, or maybe her mother's even.

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To be perfectly honest I wouldn't be surprised if it was something to do with that. I have thought a million and one things. It doesn't really help when they go radio silent after you buy it now. But they did "confirm" before hand that they were pure breed parents. And after playing stupid questions from me, clarified that the papa is the RIR and mamas, barred rock. I'd read online that people can sell eggs claiming there something there not.

I messaged them to let them know that the fertility was great with only egg out of 10 not fertile but they didn't respond. I was a little annoyed as the item description said they would be on hand to answer any questions and would love to know what people thought of their breeding stock.

I just hope they are indeed what i think they are, if any turn out to be roos i'll be gutted cause id have to rehome

 

[rosemarythyme]

Well if you hatch there's likely to be roos. Even buying sexed chicks can be hit or miss. Always have a plan in place for what to do with males in the event that you can't/don't want to keep them.