The amount of posting I’ve done here to get some answers about my chick is uncalled for. 
This is Legs, my 3 week old (almost 4) Sapphire Gem hen next to her hatch mate Peep of the same age. As obviously visible, Legs is so much smaller it’s insane! She had some beginning of life struggles with a nutritional deficiency and couldn’t walk for a week, but has found her legs (get it?) since then. Now, 2 weeks later and she’s still the size of a 4 day old chick! It’s not super visible from these pics, but she has grown very small wing feathers since she was born, but that’s about it. She isn’t skinny and weighs a solid weight for a chick her size, not too large for her body but not unhealthily small. She feels “filled out” and I can’t feel her bones the way I could when I got her, so it seems she’s improving? She has on and off leg issues with her left leg, some days hardly walking on it and some days doing just fine. However apart from that, she’s eating, drinking, and cuddling with her sister like a normal chick. She even flaps her wings to jump around as if she has anything to work with.
I’m being told it might be FTT and she’s bound to die, which might be true and I definitely hold my breath every morning I go to check on her, but she seems much stronger than most FTT chicks I’ve seen on here. Was she possibly stunted because of her rough first week and will catch up? Is she just a small hen? I’ve seen stories of people receiving bantams who stayed small their whole lives with no issue. I can only hope she lives a normal life or catches up enough. Any ideas, what can I do for her?
This is Legs, my 3 week old (almost 4) Sapphire Gem hen next to her hatch mate Peep of the same age. As obviously visible, Legs is so much smaller it’s insane! She had some beginning of life struggles with a nutritional deficiency and couldn’t walk for a week, but has found her legs (get it?) since then. Now, 2 weeks later and she’s still the size of a 4 day old chick! It’s not super visible from these pics, but she has grown very small wing feathers since she was born, but that’s about it. She isn’t skinny and weighs a solid weight for a chick her size, not too large for her body but not unhealthily small. She feels “filled out” and I can’t feel her bones the way I could when I got her, so it seems she’s improving? She has on and off leg issues with her left leg, some days hardly walking on it and some days doing just fine. However apart from that, she’s eating, drinking, and cuddling with her sister like a normal chick. She even flaps her wings to jump around as if she has anything to work with.
I’m being told it might be FTT and she’s bound to die, which might be true and I definitely hold my breath every morning I go to check on her, but she seems much stronger than most FTT chicks I’ve seen on here. Was she possibly stunted because of her rough first week and will catch up? Is she just a small hen? I’ve seen stories of people receiving bantams who stayed small their whole lives with no issue. I can only hope she lives a normal life or catches up enough. Any ideas, what can I do for her?
