# Chance of stunted chicks growing normally?



## Shockadine (Sep 2, 2014)

I recently had a pair hatch 4 chicks. This is their first time raising chicks, but in the past I have had little trouble with parents taking care of their chicks properly, so I wasn't watching the babies too closely. By time all the chicks hatched, the oldest chick died (at 5 days old) The chick looked like it was probably dehydrated and after checking the crops of the other babies I noticed they were stuffed with seed. I fed the remaining 3 babies a very thin formula with pedialyte hoping it would help them along,. The youngest did. The others didn't. I had removed their seed. Both parents do and were eating fresh veggies, beans, and pellets at the time I took their seed dish away. But a day later I noticed the youngest chick, whose crop did empty, was still empty, and the parents weren't sitting on the chicks anymore either. So the next day I had 3 shivering, underweight chicks. Two of them still half full of seed. 

I pulled these chicks when their parents abandoned them, and tried hard to get their crops to empty. On the 2nd day of being hand-fed, the oldest of them died, after its crop finally emptied. It was only 6 grams at 6 or 7 days old. The 2 remaining chicks were 9 grams at 6 and 7 days. Their crops were still emptying slow even when the seed cleared out. 

I couldn't always give them a full feeding at feeding time because there was still so much formula in there from the previous feeding. I was adding a little unfiltered apple cider vinegar to their formula once a day, and since they weren't getting all their formula though between feedings, I started adding things to the formula for a feeding a day (liquid D3, B complex, corn and sweet potato baby food for vitamin A, red palm oil also for vitamin A and added calories, crushed cuttlebone) Not all at once. 

The youngest of the 2 was starting to get bigger than it's day older sibling. When they were 14 days old, the youngest was 36 grams, and the older baby was 16 grams. The older baby's crop was still emptying very slow up until this point where everything seemed to turn around. Today they are 16 and 17 days old. The youngest was 46 grams this morning, and the older was 31 grams. The youngest chick gained 10 grams in 2 days. The older chick gained 15 grams in 3 days! It almost doubled its weight in 3 days when before I was lucky to see it gain a gram or 2 a day. Its crop empties so very quickly now. I have to feed it more food, more frequently because it's crop was completely empty between feedings. 

I have never dealt with stunted baby birds before. I expected the youngest the be very small if it made it, and I honestly didn't think the older chick was going to survive this long. The youngest has some pin-feathers. The older one is starting to get some pin-feathers now. The older chick was much quieter and weaker than the youngest chick, until just a couple days ago. Both act like very normal babies now (other than size). Has anyone had stunted babies grow into normal birds? Do they ever just catch up? I realize they may very well have some problems later on that aren't obvious now. I plan to keep them as my own pets, and I'm hoping there is a chance they will live normal lives. I can post pictures of them later.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Their lives will be normal, they're just going to be shorter and smaller than was potentially possible.


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