Sick baby chick?

[Yocelinsaldana06]

So one of our hens hatched chicks and she has 7, while cleaning her pen, I noticed one of the chicks had very ruffled feathers, just stood there, and chirped a lot. I brought it over to the brooder with the other chicks. It does eat a little but I'm concerned for how it looks overall. It’s a kikiriki so its meant to be small but this small?

 

[coach723]

Kikiriki chickens are bantams, so yes they are much smaller than standard breeds. Are the chicks being raised by a broody hen, or in a brooder? How old are they? Are they all the same age? If a chick is chirping loudly and constantly it's usually a sign of distress. It can be from being too cold, or other unknown issues. Did the chick calm when it was with the others? Does it calm when with the hen? Eating, drinking, pooping? That one doesn't have the same feather development on the wings as the one in the middle, are they mixed ages?

 

[Yocelinsaldana06]

Kikiriki chickens are bantams, so yes they are much smaller than standard breeds. Are the chicks being raised by a broody hen, or in a brooder? How old are they? Are they all the same age? If a chick is chirping loudly and constantly it's usually a sign of distress. It can be from being too cold, or other unknown issues. Did the chick calm when it was with the others? Does it calm when with the hen? Eating, drinking, pooping? That one doesn't have the same feather development on the wings as the one in the middle, are they mixed ages?

Yeah I know kikirikis are smaller than standard chickens but it just seems really tiny, maybe like the size of a quarter and a half or something. It has kikiriki siblings the same age but I probably shouldn't compare sizes since they have different moms. Regardless, too small or not, I'm mostly concerned about it chirping a ton and its messy ruffled feathers. The sick chick was being raised by a broody hen and the other chicks in the photo next to it are being raised in a brooder. I brought the sick chick into the brooder for warmth but nothing changed, it continued chirping so I returned it to its mom and it does stay quiet for a few periods but a lot of the time, it just chirps and chirps. This chick was born last Sunday so its about 8 days old, as for the one next to it in the picture, that one is about two weeks old and not a bantam so it’s understandable that it’s bigger. It does eat and drink and poop but the feathers are just so hard when you grab the chick and they’re ruffled

 

[coach723]

Has the chick been wet? Could it possibly have fallen in a water dish and gotten chilled? If something dried on the feathers that would make them stiff. Has it grown since hatch much? Sometimes there are unknown issues inside them due to incubation or development problems and they just fail to thrive for unknown reasons. Some of them just don't make it. If it's not growing normally it may not be digesting and processing nutrients properly. That it is doing a lot of loud chirping means something is wrong, something is distressing it, figuring out what may be a challenge. Or even an impossibility. If the chick got chilled that could do it. Constipation can do it. Hens will often drive away or abandon or hurt a sick or weak chick, so I would be watching for that.