Is this failure to thrive?

[HeatherLynn]

Ok I had one chick hatch from my last batch. I know the daddy is a maran mix. I have no clue what the mom might be. Possibilities are RIR, buff orp, or production red whatever that is. Someone told me he looked to be a wheaten maran. He looks just like my rir roo but with a bit more red to him and feathered feet. The chick is black with white cheeks and a white breast. Slate gray legs and feet except for the largest toe which is half gray and half yellow. So he is an interesting mutt chick.That covered breed.

http://www.backyardch

The chick is 2 weeks old. I purchased some buddies for it who were slightly larger than him. For such a HUGE daddy he is a pretty small chick. Well they are getting bigger and bigger and he seems to be growing very very slowly. He is super active, very vocal, is always eating and drinking. Maybe this is my imagination but I would have thought he would catch up at some point. They are in a brooder box, vitamin water every other day, plain water the other days. Chick starter/medicated.

So how do you know if you have a failure to thrive chick. Is there anything I can do to encourage growth? More egg maybe? I have only given them egg yolk once so far.

 

[Judy]

Egg yolk is fat, it's the whites that give extra protein. Most people just scramble them for the chickens; simpler, and they love it. I doubt it will change his growth rate, though. If he isn't being pecked by the others, I wouldn't worry about it. There really isn't a way to know whether this is failure to thrive or, more likely, just his genetics, whatever they may be. Since the hatcheries cross breed them some to up egg production, he could have all sorts of genes in him. A production red is some sort of cross already (I'm not up on what kind but you can find out if you wish.)

 

[donrae]

Is his rate of growth the same as the older chicks? A younger bird will stay smaller til they are pretty much grown. He will not "catch up" for a few months. I have bantam cochins, three the same age and one a week or so younger. They're over a month old and there's still a size differance, the young one is simply younger. Your bird sounds active and healthy, I'd just let him grow.

 

[can you hear me now?]

If you want to give him a boost just to see if it would help I would say give him higher protein feed and not the others. I feed ny chicks the chick starter for a bag or so and then I switch them to gamebird starter. I think it is a 26 or 27 per ent protein feed. All my birds a big for their age. One thing if you do this is to make sure they dont get too fat and break legs. So you will.want to keep an eye on them I think. Hope this helps. Just what I would do. I did feed mo.e yolk and have seen comparisons from others in here and the ones eating the yolks versus starter were noticeably bigger.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I have no issues with the others benefiting from a better diet as long as I know he is good too. I'll scramble up eggs every couple days and see what happens. There is just a day difference but he was small when born soo.. I don't know. I was hoping with such a big daddy.... he was in a pretty small egg though. Not tiny but not one of my jumbo layers. I almost question if one of my younger gals could be the mom which would open up even more breeds to choose from lol.

 

[TcherDawn]

I have a runty chick too. She is now 15 weeks and just starting to catch up with her fellow hatch mates. She did not feather and was half the size of all the others. But she ate, drank, and ran around like anybody's business. She is feisty and will steal a treat from anyone. I have researched on here and everyone gets a runty chick now and then. It sounds like you are taking excellent care of them, so hopefully she will be just fine and just as feisty as our Poppy. Good luck.