Miniature chick? Failure to thrive?

[Bravo]

A little background--I received a shipment from a hatchery on Monday 1/26. Not sure of the birds had a rough trip but many perished after they arrived despite every effort I made, including hand feeding. I've never lost a chick after a shipment arrived so this was pretty devastating.

Fast forward to today--of the surviving Polish, 1 chick is absolutely tiny. It was the same size as the others to start out but the others are growing and this one remains the size of a new hatchling. It's always eating, I also supplement with a yogurt, egg, chickstarter mash, and I also feed mashed hardboiled egg yolk daily. It eats and it's crop will fill mildly but never looks like the others (who look like they've swallowed a marble). It's active and its wing feathers are growing but it is not.

Has anyone had experience with this?

Any tips or advice are greatly appreciated.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Egg is a very good food but is much lower in protein than chick starter.
Now that you've fed yogurt and other things, from this point forward feed only chick starter. That way you won't be tinkering with what is formulated with all the nutrients they are known to need.
I sometimes give egg the first day or two and a probiotic but otherwise, adding other foods likely waters down nutrition.

Could have been a weak chick to begin with.

Did you inform the hatchery of the problems?

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Could you have been given a bantam and a regular large fowl of the breed? Would explain the size difference showing up.

 

[Bravo]

Thank you! It does vigorously eat the dry chick starter but I worry it isn't eating enough so I am trying to incentivize it to eat more.

It was a little weaker of a chick to start out but quickly became stronger. I did let the hatchery know and aside from refunding me for the losses they seemed to express no concern with the health of the birds.

I've raised probably close to 1000 chicks over the years and I've never seen a chick not grow. If it wasn't the same size as the others upon arrival I would be convinced it was a bantam.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

When I got my chicks last year, my bantams were the same size for the first couple of days. That is why the thought crossed my mind.

 

[Bravo]

When I got my chicks last year, my bantams were the same size for the first couple of days.  That is why the thought crossed my mind.

I've never had bantams so I didn't realize they could be the same size upon arrival. I always assumed they were tiny from the start.

If this is the case, it is definitely possible. Thank you for the info!

 

[JadedPhoenix]

No problem. Last year was the first time I ordered bantams and being new with those breeds, I had to wait for the size difference to show itself for me to start sorting the chicks by breed.

Anyway, hopefully, your problem is as simple as that. Then you will be able to clearly tell the two apart as well.

 

[Bravo]

I just called the hatchery to see if there was any possibility a bantam could have gotten in my order by accident and the answer is no.

Apparently they aren't even hatching bantams yet so no possibility there.

Back to the drawing board.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Well, just keep a watch. As long as she is happy, eating, and playing with others, there is hope. I guess that she just got the short straw in the hatchery gene pool. It happens.