Very Tiny Buff Chick [Pictures]

[bangarain]

Hello! It's my third year raising chicks and I've run into something I'm a little bit unsure about. I picked up my chicks from the feed store about a week and a half ago and accidentally picked out the smallest buff chick they had - she's almost two weeks old now and can cuddle up entirely in the palm of my hand and is still smaller than some of the 2-3 day olds they had when I got her. She seems healthy and is feathering in and eating just as well as the others, she's just...absolutely tiny. She also tried to cuddle under the other chicks, although she prefers my hand and falls asleep almost instantly when she gets comfortable. Does she need any special tlc?
Will she catch up or will I end up with the tiniest buff orpington the world's ever seen? lol


For reference, those are two turken chicks and a maran chick. (Pardon the yogurt! And the bad pictures!)

 

[azygous]

On the chance that your adorable tiny chick is slow in developing, I recommend you get some Poultry Nutri-drench and give it an undiluted drop daily for the next week. If you ever find yourself again with a chick that is lagging in development, this vitamin therapy, if started early, could help get it started catching up in development before it lags too far behind, thus preventing it from ever achieving full growth. There may still be time for this chick to catch most of the way up.

Yes, it could be a bantam accidentally dumped in the wrong bin, but unlikely. It's much more common to see failure-to-thrive chicks or some degree of it as in your chick. Extra foods can also help such as tofu, minced boiled egg, even some baby food. I feed the runt right in with the others because they're more likely to eat when facing competition from the other chicks. It's okay for all three to get these treats. Pro-biotics is a good idea, too. So is fermenting the chick feed.

Keep updating your thread. We all are interested in your chick's progress.

 

[chickenweirdo1]

The chick could possibly be a bantam.

 

[bangarain]

That would be interesting! The rest she were in with were definitely not bantams, is that possible?

 

[chickenweirdo1]

Yes I've gotten a Buff Brahma bantam that was in with regular Buff Brahmas. They may have mixed up the egg or something like that.

 

[Folly's place]

Brahma bantams are wonderful! Mine have had much nicer personalities than the standards, and have been long- lived too. Mary

 

[peeper89]

cute!

 

[bangarain]

Thank you! She is actually an Orpington though, not a Brahma. Same thing still applies, I imagine? She is very sweet and cuddly already.

 

[bangarain]

So at 3 weeks she's still at most half the size of the other chicks...feathering in pretty nicely though

 

[3riverschick]

Azygous have great advice
I have had great success using drench with my baby chicks. I don't think it is slow feathering. I think also a
Maybe a bantam. Best, Karen