Pullet or roo? Breed? 4 weeks old

kearstin17

Chirping
7 Years
Apr 28, 2012
195
4
91
Grand junction
This chick is 4 weeks old. I know it is a blue something. Anyway it has some extra long tail feathers coming it which is scary as I cannot have a roo... So please tell me what your thoughts are please...
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Not sure. Can't zoom in on the feathers close enough to see. Sometimes a B vitamin deficiency causes them to not shed their feathers correctly so the old feathers remain attached to ends of the new ones.

In the first pic, the animal at far right looks like a likely candidate for being a male. That dark red breaking up the striped feathering is generally one of the first cues in that coloration type.


Best wishes.
 
Not sure if this helps but here is a closer look at the extra tail feathers I am talking about. If it is in fact a vitamin issue... How to I fix that?
700
 
Long tail feathers at this age are characteristic of a breed, not of gender. I'm with the others on it being an Andy pullet. Andalusians are long, streamlined birds.
 
Long tail feathers at this age are characteristic of a breed, not of gender. I'm with the others on it being an Andy pullet. Andalusians are long, streamlined birds.

That's only partially true, applying to most cases but not all.

Long tail feathers due to gender can show up early, around this age, though it's not common, but also lack of B vitamins can cause the feathers to not detach properly so you end up with the next set of feathers sporting the last set still attached to the ends.

In this case, the extra length on the feathers does look like a vitamin imbalance as it seems the previous set of feathers is still attached to the new, longer, wider ones growing out. They're not male tail feathers in structure so it's most likely a pullet. I haven't owned Andalusians but those I've seen are showing gender traits like larger combs and wattles by this age.

There's a general rule of thumb that for every vitamin imbalance there is an underlying mineral imbalance. In order to correct that they could probably do with a multi vit-min mix of some sort. I use kelp granules mixed with their feed for all that, but if you use premixed feeds you don't mix yourself and aren't too keen on doing the nutritional math, it may be easier for you to find a pre-prepared mix.

Best wishes.
 

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