Week old chick has no feathers on its belly

[Brightbird]

I noticed my chick has very little feathers on its belly and what feathers there are seem to have kind of dried very close to its skin rather than fluffing out like the rest of its down. I think it may be because of its previous residence with its mom before she rejected it, the container I put them in was too small for the both of them and the mom would spill the water a lot. They were laying on a towel so maybe that’s why they’re like that. The towel has since been exchanged out for a fresh dry one. The bag of bedding we had is unfortunately waterlogged so I haven’t had the chance to put bedding down yet.

Other than the featherless belly, the chick seems healthy. I woke up with it panting so I moved its container a little bit away from the heat lamp as well as pulled the heat lamp upwards a tad bit. I’m going to try to clean out a bigger container for the chick tomorrow so hopefully there will be a better gradient of hot to cool temperatures.

I don’t know how hot it is inside my room but I know it’s around 80 degrees F outside and I’ve elected to turn off my air conditioner because it looked to be blowing the heat lamp around and I was worried about it. It could very well be 90 degrees in this room.

 

[DobieLover]

I'd leave the heat lamp off and see how she does.
Are there other chicks from the hatch? If so, take the smallest one and put it with your lone chick. It should not be raised by itself.

 

[Brightbird]

I'd leave the heat lamp off and see how she does.
Are there other chicks from the hatch? If so, take the smallest one and put it with your lone chick. It should not be raised by itself.

Unfortunately no, this little one is the only one who hatched. There is another broody hen laying on some eggs, several of them possibly fertilized, but none of them close to hatching yet. I asked my dad about getting the chick some friends and he said he’d be open to talking about it. If it doesn’t go well, I’ve actually been told by someone in another thread that mirrors can work in a pinch.

I eventually moved her container completely out of the heat lamp’s heat and she did great throughout the whole night. I kept the lamp on in case she ended up getting cold later on because for whatever reason there isn’t an easy way to turn the thing off, at least not with this particular heat lamp. The only way for me to turn it completely off would be to push my way behind a tv stand and unplug it, since that was the only outlet it could reach even with an extension cord. They never did get cold though. I was worried that the storm was going to make it too cold but I guess that’s not the case. It’s going to continue storming all week though so it might cool down eventually. And I found out about heat plates yesterday, those things that the chicks can sit under to warm up just like a broody hen. I hadn’t known about them, but I think I’ll see if I can find them in a store today, I’ve seen positive things said about them depending on the brand. If not it can always be ordered online. My goal is to completely eliminate the heat lamp this year.

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

I noticed my chick has very little feathers on its belly and what feathers there are seem to have kind of dried very close to its skin rather than fluffing out like the rest of its down. I think it may be because of its previous residence with its mom before she rejected it, the container I put them in was too small for the both of them and the mom would spill the water a lot. They were laying on a towel so maybe that’s why they’re like that. The towel has since been exchanged out for a fresh dry one. The bag of bedding we had is unfortunately waterlogged so I haven’t had the chance to put bedding down yet.

Other than the featherless belly, the chick seems healthy. I woke up with it panting so I moved its container a little bit away from the heat lamp as well as pulled the heat lamp upwards a tad bit. I’m going to try to clean out a bigger container for the chick tomorrow so hopefully there will be a better gradient of hot to cool temperatures.

I don’t know how hot it is inside my room but I know it’s around 80 degrees F outside and I’ve elected to turn off my air conditioner because it looked to be blowing the heat lamp around and I was worried about it. It could very well be 90 degrees in this room.

One of my chickens also had no fur on its belly when it was about a week old, I put it in a bigger container and raised my heat lamp and that seemed to work for me

 

[Saveria]

Those plates work great as long as the ambient temperature is above 50 degrees, which sounds like it would work for you.

https://www.chewy.com/brinsea-ecoglow-safety-600-chick/dp/221002

I would get a thermometer from a hardware store to check the brooder temp. It sounds like you need to make sure it is not too hot. I would get the mirror in there, but you can also look on craigslist for someone who can sell you a single chick. Some stores will, but most have a 4-6 minimum. Worth checking. I would do it soon before the chick imprints on you and makes freaked out noises every time it can't see you .

Good luck!

 

[Brightbird]

Good news regarding the chick. I talked with my dad about getting the chick a buddy and while he was apprehensive about getting more chicks at first, he did say that we could go up to a store that’s about an hour out to look at the chicks they have on Wednesday or Thursday. We don’t have the gas money right now to make an hour trip but on one of those days we should be able to do it. I don’t have a mirror I can put in the box with them unfortunately, so I’ll be playing chick videos for them to look at in the meantime.