Hi everyone!
I have one chick, a BO x RIR cross, who is the sole live hatch from a nest of 11 eggs, and he was born early on Day 20. He is now 17 days old and I am worried he is not growing fast enough.
Momma is looking after her chick wonderfully, and he is energetic and bouncing around all over the place. He cheeps constantly!
He also eats voraciously, and has free access to chick crumb 24/7. Each morning I also throw in a few vegie scraps (which he will have a pick at) and they both get a small handful of scratch before bed time too.
However, he doesn't look like what I expected. He has a few tiny feathers coming in on his wings, and a couple coming through on his back. But he has no tail feathers sprouting yet, and is still mostly covered in yellowy downy fluff!
He is also quite small, maybe 4 inches high? He wouldn't fit back into the egg again, lol, but he has only maybe tripled in size.
Is this normal? And does anyone have any pics of chicks about his age so that I can compare them?
Thanks in advance!
Krista
(PS: I don't know for sure that 'he' is actually a 'he.' With my luck it wouldn't surprise me though!)
I have one chick, a BO x RIR cross, who is the sole live hatch from a nest of 11 eggs, and he was born early on Day 20. He is now 17 days old and I am worried he is not growing fast enough.
Momma is looking after her chick wonderfully, and he is energetic and bouncing around all over the place. He cheeps constantly!
He also eats voraciously, and has free access to chick crumb 24/7. Each morning I also throw in a few vegie scraps (which he will have a pick at) and they both get a small handful of scratch before bed time too.
However, he doesn't look like what I expected. He has a few tiny feathers coming in on his wings, and a couple coming through on his back. But he has no tail feathers sprouting yet, and is still mostly covered in yellowy downy fluff!
He is also quite small, maybe 4 inches high? He wouldn't fit back into the egg again, lol, but he has only maybe tripled in size.
Is this normal? And does anyone have any pics of chicks about his age so that I can compare them?
Thanks in advance!
Krista
(PS: I don't know for sure that 'he' is actually a 'he.' With my luck it wouldn't surprise me though!)
