tail-less Sussex?

[Jewelwing]

My 11 week old Sussex seems to have no tail to speak of. Is this normal? I have two Sussex pullets, same age, and the other one does have a tail. I don't really care, but I think it's weird.





The next picture shows the two Sussex's right next to each other. The one with a tail is in front.



The Sussex with more of a tail is on the right, and tail-less Ethel is on the left (Australorp in the foreground showing off her tail too!).
What do you think? Is she just taking longer to grow a tail?

 

[Kelsie2290]

He looks like he is just growing in his main tail feathers in slowly, some seem to take a lot longer to get tail feathers than others for some reason. There are birds that are actually missing the tailbone / parsons nose, it is genetic, and crops up randomly in various breeds.

 

[Jewelwing]

Are you saying "he" because you think it's a rooster? Please, no!! I'm hoping it's just a hen that's taking a long time to grow a tail!

 

[Kelsie2290]

You know, I just looked at it and thought male, guess because of the pink wattle in the one picture and the slow tail growth. Looking at it, I really wouldn't vote either way right now. Would expect more development in a boy, but it could just be a slow developing one, can't see comb in those pictures... You might want to get some head and side shots of the two of them and post them in the What Breed or Gender Is This board, that other one has some odd feathers near the tail also.

 

[Jewelwing]

OK, thanks. I'll try to get some more pictures!

 

[Jewelwing]

I posted in the Gender thread, but thought I'd update with pictures here too. They are 16 weeks old now, and both their tails look nice. I think they're both girls.

Here's the one with no tail to speak of before. Looks great now! (The other one is behind her.)


Here's the other one, that had a tail all along:

 

[rainlips]

Now those are some nice tails!