New to raising chicks...have concerns!

[norlar]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and I'm so grateful I found you all. I am a first time "chick" mom and have been doing a lot of internet research on how best to care for my little chicks. I have 2 RIR's and 2 Ameraucanas. Tomorrow they will be 2 weeks old. I am concerned about one of my RIR chicks. Since Sunday, it seems she prefers to lay down instead of being rambunctious like the other chicks. When you look at her...she looks fine. She has bright eyes, is very alert, is eating, drinking water. Her poop looks normal. She is the same size as 2 of my other chicks. One of my Ameraucanas seems to be growing a tad faster than the other 3. She'll get up and eat and scratch then go back to lay down. In fact, yesterday I saw her dart over to one of the other chicks because she thought the other chick had a goody to eat. I don't know if this is normal or not. Is she lacking in vitamins? I went to the local pet store last night and bought some liquid vitamins that you can give to caged birds. I just felt I needed to do something. I do plan on purchasing vitamins from Murray McMurray as you all suggest here in the forum. But in the mean time I wanted to give them something in regards to vitamins. Oh and they are eating Chick Starter.
My second concern for this chick is I noticed that she has what I thought was a scab on her breast and back. However, when I looked closer, it looks like little shafts that are very dark red. Are these feather shafts? Is this normal? Is it painful? I looked at the other chicks and they too have some of these shafts but not as red looking as my one chick.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to take good care of my chicks and I want to do anything I can to help them grow to be strong healthy hens.
Thanks again
Norma

 

[silkiechicken]

Some chicks are just more active than others. If they are all bright eyed and bushy bodied, they are fine. Probably don't need vitamins really if they aren't sick and are now adjusted to their environment. Too many vitamins can be a be a bad thing depending on the concentration at which they drink it.

The running and stealing food form each other is normal. Hand them a meal worm and see what happens! If you do give treats, don't forget to add some grit.

My guess is you are seeing pin feathers on the backs and the chest? They look like a fat blood filled feather shaft. Different colored chicks will have different color shafts too depending on what color their feathers are.

Good luck!