extremely tiny rhode island red

[mrsmartin12]

I have been hatching out rhode island reds from my 7 birds for the last montth and two weeks ago we had 29 beautys pop out healthy and happy but a few days in we noticed one of the birds wasn't growing. A few weeks later and she is still the size of a newly hatched chick with feathers . Infact we keep her with the new hatchers to teach them where the food and water is to keep her giant siblings from smashing her. Anyone seen this before. She is healthy and spunky and feathering out but looks so tiny you can only tell the difference between her and the day olders by her feathers ... its kind of funny and sad at the same time. Will she actually live . We are going to keep her seperate but was looking for others experience.

 

[CMV]

I am inclined to think she is not going to live, but as long as she is happy and healthy I would let her try. Usually, unthrifty chicks show a variety of problems besides just lack of growth- underweight, poor/lack of feathering, frequent pasty butt, sleeping more than normal. If your chick has none of these then maybe she will surprise you and live a long life.

You might want to start a new post in the Breeds, Genetics, Showing section of the forum. They can probably help you out more over there. This section is more for illnesses and injuries, but it sounds like your little bird doesn't have either one of those going on. She is just...petite. I would be interested in seeing what the folks over in the genetics section have to say on the matter. If you do post over there you may want to include pics in your new post because they are going to ask for some. And send me a link to your new post via PM. I don't get over there much, so I wouldn't be looking for it. I am curious, though.

Good luck with her.