Chicks can grow and reach adult size quite quickly. Broiler chickens, for example, can grow to be ready for market in 48 days.
If you’re growing baby chicks, and one isn’t growing like the rest, you may be worried. If your baby chick is not growing, this article is for you
Reasons why your baby chick is not growing may be that your bird has dwarfism or that the bird is a bantam chicken. Other reasons why this is happening may be that your bird is not eating enough food or not eating the right foods,
Table of Contents
Baby chick not growing:
As cute and adorable as baby chickens may be, they can’t remain at their tiny size forever, if your baby chicken is not growing, any of the problems listed below may be the reason:
Chicks hatching too late:
Chicks usually hatch on day 21, however, this isn’t the case for all birds. If your chick hatches more than a day later than the other birds, then this bird will likely spend time trying to recover while the rest of the birds are already running around and getting used to their environment.
This bird will be more tentative than the others and will be easily stressed out. High levels of stress in your bird can suppress growth
Solution:
You can try to get it to socialize with the others and be less tentative around its siblings. Do this by offering treats and allowing them to eat together and get used to each other.
It is cold:
Cold chickens don’t eat as much food and drink as much water as they need to. If your bird is cold, it may be eating, just not enough. Not eating enough can cause the bird to become malnourished and not grow.
Solution: Make sure that you’re feeding your chick in a warm area, the best temperature for chicks to eat in is between 33 and 35 degrees Celsius. (91.4 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit) anything colder than this is less than ideal for chicks.
Your bird isn’t eating healthily:
Just as with humans, if your bird is eating, but isn’t eating the healthiest of foods, then issues can develop, these issues include stunted growth. Feeding your bird mostly treats, like scratch, and not enough nutrient-rich foods, can cause the bird to not grow
Solution:
Switch to feeding your bird a more balanced diet, yes they can have scratch, but scratch and other treats should make up only 10 percent of the bird’s diet.
Mites:
If the bird had mites at a critical point of its development, then this can result in the bird being smaller than usual and not growing.
The northern fowl mite is something to look out for when dealing with chicks. They will suck your bird’s blood and cause stunted growth, weakness, blood loss, and even death.
Solution:
Keep an eye on your chick and regularly examine it’s vent, these mites usually congregate on the bird’s vent area. If you find mites on your chick you can give your bird a dust bath, use diatomaceous earth on your bird, or use commercial products that get rid of mites on birds
Poultry dwarfism:
A variety of animals can suffer from dwarfism. If all of your birds are in the growing stage, and one of your chicks is not growing, or growing much slower than the rest, then this may mean that your bird has dwarfism
Solution: There is no solution to this problem, these birds likely inherited this gene from one of their parents
Your chick is a bantam:
You may not be raising the breed of chicken that you think you are. If you’ve accidentally received and incubated the eggs of a bantam chicken, then the chick will not grow to be as big as the other birds.
Bantam chickens grow to about ¼ or ⅕ of the size of a regular chicken. There isn’t anything wrong with her, she is just small.
Solution:
If this is the case with your birds, there isn’t much you can do about it other than ask for a refund from whoever sold the eggs to you.
FAQ:
How can I make my baby chickens grow faster?
While you can’t change the speed at which your baby chick grows you can make sure that it grows to its fullest potential.
Do this by feeding the animal a nutrient-rich feed that delivers the correct combination and amount of vitamins and minerals to support optimal growth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, your baby chick may not be growing because of a variety of reasons, the bird may have poultry dwarfism or may be a bantam, it may not be eating enough, or may not be eating the right foods.
The bird may have had mites during the growing phase or the bird may simply be stressed out
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Chicken Eggs Not Hatching After 24 Days, Chick Egg Pipped 24 Hours Ago, Chicken Laying On Side, Can’t Walk,