Chick Doesn't Grow

[riverside_chicken]

I have a chick that stopped growing when he or she was 3 weeks old. That was about 10 weeks ago. The chick has wing feathers but has down most everywhere else. All the other chicks that I acquired are about 10 times the size. Also, the chick can hardly walk, and now I keep it in a cage by itself. I wrote two months ago with this same message, but all the replies said birds grow after different rates. Any ideas of what is going on? The chick just hangs on but with no improvement.

 

[Ol' Biddy]

I have the same problem but no answers. Want you to know you are not alone. My chick is five weeks old and the size of a one week old. My other one, the same age, is three times the size. I have searched the internet for weeks...but no luck. What to do??

 

[emvickrey]

I had one that hatched breach and it took forever it seems for her to grow. She was the only one to hatch out of 12 shipped eggs. So I bought her a couple of buddies from the local feed store. They where just a tad older than her so always where bigger but she just didn't seem to grow. She did get feathers but slower than the rest. Of course I named her midget. Then all of a sudden she had a growing spurt like kids do and she is the same size as the others now. As long as your's is eating and drinking and doing littke chick things I wouldn't worry about it. You could probably add some poly-vi-sol to her water or some electrolites to give her a boost. I don't know for sure but I would try it if she doesn't seem to be acting like the others her age.

I'm no pro by no means, i'm always asking for advice but I saw that nobody helped you so I thought I would put in my 2 cents. I hope it helps.

Oh the Poly-vi-sol you need to use is kids vitamins, yes for humans. I read it on this site that it is safe to use on chicks.

 

[SangaChicken]

I read a different thread on here today about the same thing. Basically, it sounds like "failure to thrive" and is natures way of culling the weaker of the species.

Ways to intervene:

Suppliment with vitamins (Polyvisol)
Feed her boiled egg yolk for energy
Beef up her protein (Also acheived by egg yolk)
Put another chick of smaller or comparable size with her for motivation
Add a little apple cider vinegar to her water
Add a little sugar to her water if she goes lethargic
Keep her vent clean if it isn't
Keep your fingers crossed

Good luck! Keep us posted!

 

[Kim65]

I bought ten white crested polish chicks the first week of June, and I only have three left. One is slowing down and panting and weak. They have been in a brooder with other chicks and turkey poults who are all thriving and growing, but these polish chicks who are OLDER are the smallest of them all. Interestingly, they have also been "the bosses", so there has been no problem getting to the feed.

I hope at least one survives.

I'm guessing the gene pool sucks for these guys, I got them from a private breeder.

I've not seen them with ANY symptoms of illness. Just never really as active as the others. They just slow down and I find them dead. It's been heartbreaking. The only thing I can think of is they are just poor quality chicks.

Sometimes the genes go together just wrong and your little chick may have got the short end of the stick.

 

[SangaChicken]

I don't know, I don't think poor quality would necessarily result in death or rather, genocide.. more likely, there is a medical reason like parasites that came from this breeder that hasn't affected your others yet. I would investigate this further.

 

[chickachickadoo]

My chicks were 4 weeks old yesterday. Out of 21 chicks, 1 had not grown since about 1 week old. She ate, she drank, she pooped fine, but she didn't grow. At first she only slept more than the others. By last week she was maybe half the size of the others. At first she was just as peppy as the others, but within the past week she had lost that pep and her breathing became labored. She died yesterday.

I'd suspected she was failure to thrive but kept hoping she was a runt who would survive. I kept coming back here and reading about people whose runts had survived and kept pulling for her. It just wasn't to be.

 

[Emzyyy]

I had the same thing and soon she couldn't get up either she ended up dying

 

[posey]

I'm sorry for everyone's loss. I lost two undersized chicks this week but I'm also dealing with other factors, too.

About the Poly vi sol vitamins, make sure they are the liquid ones 'WITHOUT IRON'. 3 Horses shared this with me this week while trying to help with my sick chicks. She explained that the chick crumbles have more surface space exposed to air and that they just don't hold the nutrition as well as the pellet food for older birds. That's why the vitamins are such a good idea.

Also adding a thimble size (approximate) of yogurt to their diet will help them get the most out of the nutrition that they have.

Hope this helps

 

[stormylady]

I also have a 10 week old chick, EE , Ive named her sweetpea, she is very small, my 4 week old SF chicks are bigger than her. Shes been on a special diet for weeks and still she always looks puffed up, and generally unhealthy, 2 day ago my son suggested that I give her some of his colloidal silver water that he takes regularly and swears by it making him feel better, so I figured what the heck, she looked so bad I figured she wasn't going to make it anyway so I could at least try. So we put a small amount of the colloidal silver in her water and overnight she and the faves drank (mostly her) all of it! The next morning she was looking perkier and she ate all of her food, she always has eaten good but never seemed to make much of a difference, so I took her out side and set her down and she ran all over the yard and even found a mulberry and tried to eat it, she has an overgrown top beak and her head seems small for her body size even and her eyes are enormous, she almost looks like she has some form of dwarfism.But when she was outside yesterday, she was walking around all cocky like a chicken. LOL I almost couldn't recognize her from a couple of days ago When she was all drawn up and looking like a little ball, obviously in pain and miserable.

Just a note..... I don't plan on breeding her or eating her eggs if she survives she will be strickly pet! In fact Im hoping she is a Roo just so her body won't be put through the extra stress of making and laying eggs. Just wanted to add that for anyone who might have objections to the eating of eggs and meat issues of any animal on that type of suppliment. Although it is suppose to be perfectly safe. I would say check out the sites for colloidal silver and see if it might meet your needs too, it sure helped my little Sweatpea. Heres a few pictures of her/him