What's Going On?

[JFreeman]

I have several Mottled Houdans that will be 3 weeks old on Friday. One I have named Half Pint since she isn't growing like the rest of them. I don't know what has caused her stunted growth, and I don't know what I should do about it, if there is anything I can do about it, and if it is something I should worry about.

Here are a couple of pictures of Half Pint and a couple pictures of the other Houdans. Remember, they are the same age.

(Half Pint)


(Half Pint)


(One of the two Elvis Twins)


(One of the two Elvis Twins)

 

[sumi]

Sometimes you'll get a "runt" chick that will not grow at the required rate and fall behind it's siblings. What you can do to help the little bit is feed her separately and make sure she eats enough. And in addition to her regular chick feed, give her extra high protein snacks, such as mealworms, scrambled or boiled egg, tinned tuna, a small amount of dry cat food and/or meat scraps as well as fresh greens, chopped up fine. Spinach is a firm favourite with my chickens of all ages and alfalfa (lusern) is excellent too. Make sure you provide grit when feeding these extras to help her break it down. If you cannot find chick grit you can use coarse, clean sand instead and sprinkle it over her food, like salt. Also boost her nutrient intake by giving her a little vitamin + mineral supplement like poly-vi-sol or nutri drench, or an infant supplement (one without Iron) once a day. Hope this helps!

 

[JFreeman]

Wow! Thank you so much. I really appreciate the help and I'll start little Half Pint today.

 

[JFreeman]

It's been two and a half months since then, and I felt I should give an update on the little Half Pint. She's doing GREAT! Out of the seven I ordered, only two have survived this long: Domino and Half Pint.

My sweet Half Pint just eats up attention. She is usually hanging around Labelle, the Golden Polish.



This is Domino. He's so cute with his attention seeking. Of all the chickens, the Houdans are the most people social. <3 I would buy the breed again.



As far as survival, I don't blame the hatchery. Something was happening in my coop, either a snake or the heat or something was getting to them and I lost about half of my flock.