My chick is not growing

[Nonnie195]

I got my chicks when they were two days old. They are splash orpingtons. As you can see, the one on the right is very small. She seems to be the same size as when we got them, about one month ago. She eats, drinks, and acts normal. As a matter of fact, I have seen her walk on top of the others when they are eating. She does not seem to be scared of much, but when she is, like when I took this picture and they all huddled together, she got underneath them, literally. Any thoughts?

 

[sumi]

She looks like a "runt". Poor thing. What you can do to help her grow is feed her extra high protein snacks, like mealworms, scrambled eggs, tinned tuna, meat scraps... Just remember to offer grit to help her break down the new food! Also feed her fresh greens like spinach or alfalfa (lusern) now and then and add some vitamin-mineral supplement for infants (one without iron) to her drink water. Good luck with her!

 

[Nonnie195]

Here is another pic. She is standing on the little perch and still looks so small next to them.

 

[countrycakelady]

Do as sumi suggests...I had 2 who were much smaller than the others...they are now 11 weeks old and they are almost as big as the others. It helps!

 

[Nonnie195]

Well, this afternoon I scrambled an egg for her. She just looked at it like, "what am I supposed to do with it?" I had to feed the egg to all of the chicks to get the little one to eat some. All I could think is that I will help all of the babies to grow and the little one will still be a dwarf. After a few minutes, they acted uninterested. All together, the babies maybe ate a fifth of the egg. I gave the rest of it to my 11 week old sweeties. The guy I bought the splash orpingtons from suggested gro gel. Have you used it before? Where do I get mealworms from?

 

[jjb1953]

Where do I get mealworms from?

Petco and other pet food stores.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I had one that looked like it was a month younger than it's contemporaries. She caught up and was same size at 6 months.

 

[sumi]

Well, this afternoon I scrambled an egg for her. She just looked at it like, "what am I supposed to do with it?" I had to feed the egg to all of the chicks to get the little one to eat some. All I could think is that I will help all of the babies to grow and the little one will still be a dwarf. After a few minutes, they acted uninterested. All together, the babies maybe ate a fifth of the egg. I gave the rest of it to my 11 week old sweeties. The guy I bought the splash orpingtons from suggested gro gel. Have you used it before? Where do I get mealworms from?

They will be suspicious of new foods at first. Just keep offering it, they'll learn. When I gave my hens mealworms for the first time they didn't know what to do with it either, but once they realised they were supposed to eat it and it's nice...

 

[Nonnie195]

While she still doesn't seem to be getting any larger (she can literally walk under the others' legs), she is eating and pooping more regularly now. I found out yesterday that she probably had a full crop. It was most likely keeping her from getting all of the nutrients. I knew that their crops would be full after eating, I just didn't know that it should be empty and flat in the morning. I had another chick, the bottom left one in the first picture, that had a full crop that died yesterday. She was acting very lethargic, so I took her to a guy that raises rare chickens. When I got to his house, he rubbed on her crop and she threw up and had diarrhea at the same time. Within ten minutes she died. It was so terrible to watch. I hate learning about stuff the hard way. He told me that since I had been giving them grit, it may have just been something that could not have been helped. This morning I read in another post about applesauce and lactulose that a vet recommended. I guess next time I'll know.

 

[azygous]

I have one just like her! Mine are twelve days old, and little Miss Mini (her name) is half the size of the others. But she didn't do well at first, and wouldn't eat. On advice from others on this forum, I got her some Poultry Nuti-drench, a powerful vitamin supplement. In addition, since she wouldn't eat anything else except boiled egg yolk, I started giving her tofu with the Nuti-drench squirted over the top. She took right to it. Also, she seems to prefer her chick crumbles moistened. The others treat her very well, and she's growing, although she's still half their size.

I've had small hens go through a growth spurt late, and make up size after they were two years old, so there's still hope for out little minis.