So I Have This Silkie...

[Yep I Talk To Chickens]

I had a polish chick had the same problem it died

 

[Elliebeans]

Yes that makes exact sense. I hate to say it but all of my silkies are stupid and slow. I hold one and her head just falls backwards as she instantly falls asleep. I love them though don't get me wrong. It's so cute, if you grab the hair on their head they shake their head no. Me and my mom always laugh about it we're like "do you love me?" chicken: *no*

anyways I'm getting off topic i just wanted to share that. It is crazy that yours crowed so late, that means my 'girls' could also be roos because they haven't laid an egg or anything yet. Our big silkie roo won't mate with them either. I think a lot of these silkie breeders are just dumb. They want money so they sell these inbred things which you can't tell are inbred at first. Then new silkie breeders buy the inbred ones and breed them even more. Someday their gonna mutate into monsters if it goes on long enough

I have a chicken named Nugget too haha, but she's an EE mix. I didn't know that chickens could have oatmeal tho! Is it the plain kind and do you add anything to it (besides water )?

One more thing about inbreeding tho, do you (or anyone else reading this) know if it's normal for a non inbred chicken to be deformed? We were incubating an egg from our RIR/EE and it gave up, so we opened the egg saw it's legs were backwards and it's feet were all crazy and toes twisted grown over one another. Could that have been an indication one or both of our chickens had inbred ancestors? Or is it just a normal occurance that happens sometimes when dna screws up?

I wouldn't worry too much about laying yet, they are supposed to start laying between 7 and 9 months old so if they are 5 months old like Mitty they have plenty of time. Keep an eye out for longer, 'stringy' bits of feathers in their crests and pointy tail feathers.

My two silkie hens aren't slow like my rooster, but I got them from different breeders though. I do wonder if their obstructed vision can make the breed seem a bit different to others sometimes. My hens do alright but my Araucana gets hers trimmed.

As for the oatmeal, I often add milk to it when cooking, especially if it's cold or for younger chickens or those that need to gain a bit more weight. I also add fruit to it as well, frozen stuff is cheaper than fresh unless you have some you need to use up. I just add it to it when it's cooking. I have two flocks and my other one (no Nugget) is fussy about food and barely pecked at oatmeal until i started adding frozen raspberries to it while cooking. I don't know if it's the taste or the colour the oatmeal turns from them but they gobble that up now.

I also sometimes cook up dishes with mixes of rice, pasta, lentils and vegetables for them too. I wonder if rice, lentils and finely diced vegetables would be easy enough for Mitty to digest? I also give them sardines sometimes too.

I'm not an expert but I think incubation temperature or humidity that is a bit 'off' can sometimes affect a chickens development and cause problems.

 

[Crestcrazy2]

I had a polish chick had the same problem it died

Sorry to hear that

 

[theycallmechickmagnet]

I haven't started hatching eggs yet, I'm just starting out. I had no idea about everything I have just read in your comment. Wow! I have so much to learn before I will be ready to begin hatching eggs.

Well we have made plenty of mistakes hatching eggs. You just have to learn from them. My #1 is don't help them if there is still blood. I hate to admit it but I was really stupid back then and caused a lot of unnecessary complications doing that. I still have lots to learn about duck hatching tho, all the ones I incubated suffocated while pipping or needed help hatching

 

[theycallmechickmagnet]

I wouldn't worry too much about laying yet, they are supposed to start laying between 7 and 9 months old so if they are 5 months old like Mitty they have plenty of time. Keep an eye out for longer, 'stringy' bits of feathers in their crests and pointy tail feathers.

My two silkie hens aren't slow like my rooster, but I got them from different breeders though. I do wonder if their obstructed vision can make the breed seem a bit different to others sometimes. My hens do alright but my Araucana gets hers trimmed.

As for the oatmeal, I often add milk to it when cooking, especially if it's cold or for younger chickens or those that need to gain a bit more weight. I also add fruit to it as well, frozen stuff is cheaper than fresh unless you have some you need to use up. I just add it to it when it's cooking. I have two flocks and my other one (no Nugget) is fussy about food and barely pecked at oatmeal until i started adding frozen raspberries to it while cooking. I don't know if it's the taste or the colour the oatmeal turns from them but they gobble that up now.

I also sometimes cook up dishes with mixes of rice, pasta, lentils and vegetables for them too. I wonder if rice, lentils and finely diced vegetables would be easy enough for Mitty to digest? I also give them sardines sometimes too.

I'm not an expert but I think incubation temperature or humidity that is a bit 'off' can sometimes affect a chickens development and cause problems.

He would probably have to have it blended haha. And your probably right because we have no way of telling the humidity in our incubator

 

[theycallmechickmagnet]

I had a polish chick had the same problem it died

Aww I'm sorry :/

 

[Kiraeh]

Oh man, what a -and I say this with love- absolute lemon of a chicken. There really seems to be a trend of inbred silkies, of the six I got as my first chickens, half have something off about them(tho not this much off). When I raised a batch of chicks from a different breeder, the difference between them and the silkies in terms of development was really something.