Mystery breed with BIG feet. Also, might be a little Roo?

[sourland]

I'll go out on a limb and guess cockerel. It is a Cornish X, and if it is to have any quality/length of life it needs to be put on a limited diet. Heart and leg problems, sadly, are common in these birds.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I agree with the guess of roo, but it's very hard to tell. I don't like to guess until 6 weeks or so and even then I get it wrong sometimes. However, it's also more likely that it's a boy since the boys are the most popular for sale because they grow larger.

At this point you can already start limiting it's feed. Spend a week working it from being free-fed to feeding it two times a day as much as it can eat in 15 minutes. Also switch to a wet mash or fermented feed instead of dry. (Mix pellets or crumbles in a jar or something with water until it's very thick and oatmeal-y. You can mix enough for a few days at a time and it will start to ferment, which is fine, just stir it every day at meal time. Be careful filling it and refilling it, the feed will expand a lot.) It will eat less food while still feeling full this way and the extra hydration helps.

If it is a boy it will be nearly impossible to find a good home for it. Roosters are hard to rehome to places that won't eat them when they're good flock sires. A CX roo is a terrible flock sire and is destined for a stewpot. I can't imagine anything but a professional vegan rescue being willing to take them. Just something to bear in mind.

 

[ashlandco]

I got a chick from Big R that looked like that and turned out being a White Rock and was so much bigger then the others. She is now our best egg layer

 

[Duck Lover88]

I just thought I would put this out there… we had some Cornish X's that we were going to slaughter and we decided to spare one to see what would happen… long story short she turned out to be a girl and started laying eggs… she still lays to and its been almost 2 years… her name is "the meaty"…