Worried about a baby chick!

[elkelke]

Hi!

So last Mon/Tues/Weds I had 7 chicks hatch and got 8 more from my local feed store. One of the chicks I hatched, Arlo I'm worried about. She was born late Tuesday and I took her out of the incubator Wednesday. I'm pretty sure she's the youngest of my 15 and some could be 3-4 days older. I was worried she wouldn't make it. She was a lot more uncoordinated and also had a longer period of time after hatching being so. instead of pushing out at the air bubble she pushed out through the pointed end of her egg! (Is that normal?? Or was she positioned wrong?) I thought she had curled toes but I dismissed it for me being a worrier. As of Friday half of the chicks went to a friends since she'll be keeping some of them until they go outside, but I kept Arlo at my house to keep an eye on. Separating and adding new chicks have kept my chicks from being pecky and they all get along great. As I got to watch her more she rarely seems to eat from the food container and instead she eats spilled food from the bottom of the brooder. She has a really strange way of pecking at food that I have to better way to describe than a full body forward whiplash.

She eats pine shavings too. Saturday I ended up repositioning her foot with a bandaid since she seemed to walk on the back of her legs instead of feet and her middle toe on one of her feet is very weak and flexible. I separated her with my sweetest chick Little for company, into their own brooder to make sure Arlo is getting enough food and water. Also she just seems a lot more mellow where as the rest of my big chicks are racing around their brooder and causing chick mayhem. She goes to sleep in my hand (which none of my others do) and when I was trying to feed her with ground up food mixed with water (I was afraid she wasn't eating enough) she could barely stay awake and just dozed off in the middle of a bite. She now has the bandaid off and seems to be walking better, but doesn't race around and look curious like my other chicks. When she was in her own brooder she'd do that awful shrill, loud cheep, which none of my other chicks do. As of now she's back with the other chicks and seems ok. She was semi picked on (my Australorp, barred rock and cinnamon queen would peck her eye): but sleeps most of the time. To sum it up, is her stressed cheeping, size, mood, sleepiness, food habits, coordination, being at the bottom of the order things to worry about? I don't know if I'm worrying too much or she might really be ill. I mean she is younger, smaller and had a mild foot problem, but someone relieve my worries or give me suggestions

(The pic is size comparison of my rir Roadie that is 1 day older than Arlo, the one with the chipmunk back)

Sorry for the novel, this is my first time raising chicks by myself, and I'm new to the site too

Thanks for your help everyone XOXO
/Mona

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Some unfortunately aren't formed correctly and will often pass in the first 2 weeks. Others can fail to thrive and eventually pass too, but often linger longer and fail to grow.

I always keep my chicks on paper towels over the shavings for the first week to keep them from consuming the shavings.

Not much you can do for it, either it will improve or it won't.

 

[biophiliac]

I had a little "chipmunk" like yours that i worried over and hovered over, sure he wasn't gonna make it. Picked up 8 from the hatchery and by day 2 i noticed he wasn't eating like the rest, not as active, just wandered around lost when not sleeping or approached his brooder mates and chirped at them like he expected to be fed. He would pick at a few crumbles from time to time but just wasn't serious about feeding himself like the others. I was sure he wasn't eating enough to survive and was resigned to losing him. Since he wasn't shipped maybe he kept going on the residual nutrition from the yolk that is supposed to sustain chicks for about 3 days before they need to eat. Luckily he wasn't picked on but he wasn't growing bigger like the rest. Then suddenly about day 5 he planted himself in front of the food bowl and ate, and ate, and ate! Became a little pig and began to thrive. Now is a beautiful EE cockerel named Kebechet..."just call me Chet" and he has a nice flock of hens.

I hope it works out that well for you!, like oldhen says they make it or they don't, not much you can do.