Newly hatched chick. NO EYES! **UPDATE 1-31-12** SHE LAYED!!!!!!!!

[jtaylormade]

that is the cutest frizzly butt i have ever seen. What a heartwarming story

 

[pennie1]

I will be following this thread carefully. I posted 1 just a few minutes ago and got pointed in this direction by a very nice person. I raise partridge Silkies, but have a pair of whites that I got last year. They are the sweetest birds that I have ever had. I finally got an egg from them to hatch and have figured out it is blind. I will do everything that I can to take care of this chick (even if it has to live in a clothes basket in my kitchen with a little stuffed animal). I make sure it drinks every couple of hours and hand feed it scrambled egg with yogurt and baby crumbles just to keep it going until it figures out how to take care of itself on it's own. If I spoil it until it will only eat from me, then so be it. I will find a way to train it. I love this little darling.

The mom is my avatar.

 

[dretd]

He is the cutest little guy. Rainstorm, you are an awesome person to not give up hope and give him a chance!

That fluffy butt photo and the video are priceless. I have seen many animals cope well with blindness and they do best if you keep their environment stable so they can learn where things are I have also seen dogs buddy up and have one act as a seeing eye dog for the other--maybe a chicken buddy will help out!

I figure that blindness is a minor defect when you see that Mike the Headless Chicken lived for 18 months without, well, a head:
http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/story.php

 

[Nimby Chickens]

Quote:
So your eyeless chick and the OPs eyeless chick were the same cross? Interesting. Could this mean that this particular cross carries some strange gene that interacts strangely? Seems a really strong coincedence.

 

[ericsgirlie]

AWE! so cute!

 

[orpingtonbabies]

Glad he's doing well! Good luck!

 

[Pharm Girl]

I'm already ready for new pics of your little bugger. He's adorable!

 

[Katydid2011]

The video warmed my heart. Bless you for your kindness.

 

[ZooMummzy]

I haven't checked in for awhile on this little guy but I have enjoyed catching up! What a cutie! I raise special need chicks too so this just warms my heart....

 

[Barrdwing]

Quote:
Yes, it does, and that's a really good question. I couldn't find much information on eyelessness/tiny eye in chickens: there's a recessive gene that codes for it, but it seems a little much to think that both parents were carriers. It can also be an incubation defect. These eggs were under a hen, but there were a lot of eggs (eight) and she's a bantam Cochin, so it's possible Sonar's egg got neglected at some point.

I was so horrified that I re-homed the rooster, so I don't have any further examples of this particular parentage. Maybe in thirty years or so someone will publish a paper on the incidence of tiny eye in Silky/d'Uccle crosses, and the OP and I will slap our foreheads and yell, "D'oh!"