Dwarf silky?? How to integrate a dwarf?

[JacinLarkwell]

Possible that she's just stunted then. Since she was so sick during a time she should have been growing.

Failed to thrive, though she is doing greate except size wise. She kept up weight and growth with her broodmates until she got sick. That's when she started to lose a lot of weight. She stopped eating for a while. We thought she would die but she ended up being the only surviving two of six. She is now eating well, keeping a good healthy weight for her size, is active and always happy to see me. So if it is that is she out of the woods? I honestly don't think she'll ever be a typical size silky.

^^^

In my experience, animals with failure to thrive are never fully out of the woods. I had a rabbit with it that did great for 4 years and then suddenly went down hill and died before she reached four and a half. I have a goat that is almost six that has it and she has gotten incredibly, severely sick nearly every year to the point we had to consider culling her before something wound up working.

If it's just that she's stunted, then odds are that she might do just fine.

 

[Anime2lover]

In my experience, animals with failure to thrive are never fully out of the woods. I had a rabbit with it that did great for 4 years and then suddenly went down hill and died before she reached four and a half. I have a goat that is almost six that has it and she has gotten incredibly, severely sick nearly every year to the point we had to consider culling her before something wound up working.

If it's just that she's stunted, then odds are that she might do just fine.

Stunted is kinda what we were originally thinking because of the fact that she and her siblings were all doing well until they got sick.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I hatched a silky with a clutch of six mixed breed and silky chick's. She was the first silky chick to hatch and the biggest of them at the time. For the first few months she kept up in size with her silky broodmare. But then a sickness swept through our birds like a hurricane. Said sickness took all but two of that brood and most the other chick's we hatched last summer to. She got it too and looked bad for a while. Now she is six months old, doing well but is half the size she should be. She is also still losing her baby feathers. She eats well enough and is really active and happy to. But she doesn't have a flock of her own because her surviving sister bullied her and had to take her inside for extra care. How can we safely integrate such a small chicken with our adult bantams?

I will tag a Silkie guru though.

@LadiesAndJane

Dwarfism in birds exists, but is quite rare. Failure to thrive syndrome is far more likely.

Thanks for the tag.

I know I’m a bit late to the party. Looks like you got good advice already from other posters. She may catch up a bit in size as she gets older. She looks healthy now. As far as integration, I personally would take one of the smaller, gentler birds in your flock and put them together for a few weeks, before trying to integrate her in the flock, so she has a buddy.

I would also feed her a higher protein feed, like a Flock Raiser or All Flock (20% protein) to help encourage feather growth.

 

[Anime2lover]

Thanks for the tag.

I know I’m a bit late to the party. Looks like you got good advice already from other posters. She may catch up a bit in size as she gets older. She looks healthy now. As far as integration, I personally would take one of the smaller, gentler birds in your flock and put them together for a few weeks, before trying to integrate her in the flock, so she has a buddy.

I would also feed her a higher protein feed, like a Flock Raiser or All Flock (20% protein) to help encourage feather growth.

She's on her own 20% chick feed still. We are gonna be hatching silky chick's soon. We intend to make them her flock since she's so gentle.