One pullet seems different from the rest...

[Katiedid]

This is not an emergency, but it has me worried. I'm a new chicken owner in a rural setting and I'm working hard to have them not be pets. We bought our 5 chickens from a guy out of town because I wanted colored eggs and he was one of the few people in our area who sold distinct breeds, so we could be relatively sure of egg color. One of the pullets was much smaller and he told us she was younger. He had a decent age spread, so we believed him. The other four birds are really thriving with us, they've grown in their feathers all the way and are gaining weight and looking more and more like adult birds. "Little bit" (I know it's not a good idea to name an animal that it's a pet, but it's done.) is just not growing much. She didn't have head feathers when we got her and though those have grown in, her chest is relatively bare. The other birds don't seem to pick on her and she's as active as they are, but she's just tiny compared to the rest. We've had them for about two months now, so I'm a bit concerned. I want to worm them and use DE, but my wormer says not to use it on undersized animals and I don't want to kill her. (I'm hoping that worming her will help her to thrive.)

I guess I'm just not sure what to do. Every morning when I check the coop, I'm relieved to see that she isn't dead. It's very possible that I'm over worrying about this. Is there anything that can be done to help an undersized, slow growing bird? We have the usual, good coop, grit, good food, nice run, plenty of food and water....

 

[TechnoCat]

pics? Might help.
A tip- you might not want to buy chickens from a fair or another guy. Purchase them from a hatchery. This is what we did to make sure none of our girls will be sick or will die soon.

 

[DMRippy]

It is possible she is a dwarf bird. I have a few that I hatched that are small for some reason. Even smaller than the ones 2 weeks younger. Seems to be fine, but they don't seem to thrive (grow well). We will see (have 75+ chicks and only 2 where small and I got eggs from someone else). I had one that came from a hatchery that was a dwarf. She did die, but not sure why. She was 6 months or so and about the same size as my D'uccle roo and was a prod red. Her sister was about 8 months and never laid and she died too.

 

[rbaker0345]

I'm gonna go with occams razor on this one. Could she be a bantam?

 

[anderson8505]

Sounds like she was just a chick that hatched badly. I am glad the others aren't picking at her, keep an eye out for that, otherwise feed quality feed and treats and she'll probably just always be small, like a runt puppy or kitten.

 

[Katiedid]

She isn't the same breed as the bantams that he had. I was kind of hoping that might be it too, but I don't think that would explain the slow growing feathers. Thanks all for telling me about your experiences. I'll keep hoping for the best!

 

[suburbanchickymama]

I have a variety of chickens that I hatched and out of mine the different breeds grew and feathered in very differently. My Ameraucanas in particular were soooo incredibly slow to both grow and feather in! In fact, my only Ameraucana I still have (one was a boy I rehomed and one I gave to a friend) is still the smallest of all the chickens and still at 31 weeks has not laid an egg!

So maybe just maybe it's the breed?? Definitely agree that pics would help from some of the more seasoned folks here! Good luck!!