Month Old Chick with No Feathers on Back

[brodysam]

I have a bcm chick that hatched May 21 who has no feathers on his/her back. I've checked for mites and can't find any. They are still in the process of getting all their mature feathers in, but this one has the largest bald spot which includes most of the back. I can see the quills on the back, just no feathers. I don't see any injuries where other chicks may be picking on them but it is a possibility. Is this normal?

 

[skeeter9]

It's certainly not unusual to have one that feathers out late, brodysam. We had an EE cockerel one time that didn't feather out until he was 6 months old! We called him "Nakeds" and he was a beautiful, healthy boy. We have also had others who feathered out later than their hatch-mates, but all were healthy, beautiful birds at maturity.

 

[Tala]

I have one that feathered everywhere EXCEPT his back. Poor guy still doesn't have tailfeathers!
He was about a month old in this pic:

As far as I can tell, there is NOTHING wrong with him.
Somebody else on here had a cockerel that didn't feather for so long that they named him "Hotwings" because of how his naked wings looked.

I have another RIR chick on the yard now, who is mostly pinfeathers on her back and it gives her a funky "greasy" look....again, no clue why she is this way and the others aren't.

In most cases it seems that the slower feathering chicks are cockerels...

 

[cabot]

I have one too, she is about 8-9 weeks old in this pic and doesn't look much different now at 10-11 weeks (maybe a few more feathers...). A lot of people have said that they had similar chicks that were feathered in eventually. I'm hoping!

 

[jerseygirl1]

My littel birchen cochin roo was JUST like that until he was about 12 weeks old, then when he grew his feathers, he was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!! Now I know how to sex them, no feathers on back is a roo! None of the pullets looked like that

 

[sgtmom52]

This is my bantam cochin cockerel "Bug" at 8 weeks ~ he was also a bareback until he started filling in around 10 weeks old.

 

[elmo]

You could try giving them supplemental protein. I've been feeding my chicks this year a mashed up hardboiled egg every morning as a treat, and all of mine have feathered in much faster and grown much more quickly than the batch I raised last year only on chick feed. I'm not sure if that's the difference, though. Last year's batch was artificially brooded, and this year's batch has been hen raised, so they're also getting lots of bugs, too.

 

[sgtmom52]

Quote:
I would be worth a try, however I did give mine eggs often and out of 15 chicks in this hatch all feathered out normally except for Bug ~ I think that it was just "normal" for him to feather slowly. He did however start crowing at 4 weeks old!

 

[chicmom]

I had a little GLW cockerel that took the longest time to feather. He was mostly fuzz on the body, and the fuzz was very thin, so he looked like he was bald with some wing feathers. He turned out just fine though....looked like hell, but once he matured, he was beautiful!

Don't worry, soon your ugly duckling will become a swan!

 

[brodysam]

Thank you all so much. He looks a good bit like Tala's little red chick in one of the above posts. I checked him again and I still don't see any mites or lice. His skin looks nice and healthy, just a little bare on the back. I'll try the hard boil eggs too. I've just never had one do that and didn't know what to expect.