Spitzhaubens

[Alaskan]

Sadly....

I agree with you completely!!!

So, the definite male and female, as well as the iffy ones!!

 

[homeschoolin momma]

I'm leaning boy, boy, girl, boy.

I like your girls light coloring. I think she'll be properly spotted.

 

[Faraday40]

As long as DS's fav (PINK) is female, we're good.
@homeschoolin momma is in dire need of a new cockerel, so perhaps one of these guys will make the cut.

Pink is one on his shoulder.

Then:

Now:
She likes to watch TV, play video games on the tablet, and fall asleep on DS.
My couch potatoes!

 

[SueT]

This is Violetta, one of our Sprights (half Spitz) in the basement broody jail for the 3rd time this year. She hatched one egg last year, and chick was a cockerel. (Spitzhauben). She wants to be a mama again so badly but we don’t want more chickens at this time....especially more boys.
The young rooster, now a year old, gets along w his father, and the flock of 12, and with me, so I have kept him.

 

[MeanCheek]

My three little gold spangled pullets are doing very well. They are happy, healthy, and active.
The little cockerel, on the other hand, is droopy, thin, sluggish, his comb and wattles are pale, and he's gaunt. When I pick him up, he feels like he's starving, his keel sticks out and, unless he just ate, his crop is not there.
I've never seen this. What's wrong with him?
I feel so badly =(

 

[NatJ]

My three little gold spangled pullets are doing very well. They are happy, healthy, and active.
The little cockerel, on the other hand, is droopy, thin, sluggish, his comb and wattles are pale, and he's gaunt. When I pick him up, he feels like he's starving, his keel sticks out and, unless he just ate, his crop is not there.
I've never seen this. What's wrong with him?
I feel so badly =(

Is he able to eat enough? Or is someone chasing him away from the food?

One way to check whether he's being chased away from the food: if there is anything your chickens love to eat, put some out and watch whether he gets his share or whether he stays back. I like to use wet chicken feed to test things like that. It's just chicken feed plus water, but the chickens seem to love it. Because they cannot pick up pieces and run around, they clearly show which ones are dominant (eating freely), which ones can sneak a bite, and which ones are too scared to come close.

If he is not able to eat freely in the pen with the others, you might need to put him in a cage by himself for a while. If his only problem is starvation caused by bullying, he should improve pretty quickly when he has plenty to eat and drink and no competition. But if he has other problems, he may not improve, and you will need to figure out what else is going on.

 

[MeanCheek]

Is he able to eat enough? Or is someone chasing him away from the food?

One way to check whether he's being chased away from the food: if there is anything your chickens love to eat, put some out and watch whether he gets his share or whether he stays back. I like to use wet chicken feed to test things like that. It's just chicken feed plus water, but the chickens seem to love it. Because they cannot pick up pieces and run around, they clearly show which ones are dominant (eating freely), which ones can sneak a bite, and which ones are too scared to come close.

If he is not able to eat freely in the pen with the others, you might need to put him in a cage by himself for a while. If his only problem is starvation caused by bullying, he should improve pretty quickly when he has plenty to eat and drink and no competition. But if he has other problems, he may not improve, and you will need to figure out what else is going on.

At first, I thought he was getting chased away from the feeder, so every day I separated and fed him. He gets 2+ duck eggs daily and corn and unlimited crumbles. He loves the eggs. His group has been out with the big chickens during the day for about a week. He might look slightly better, but still very thin

 

[Alaskan]

At first, I thought he was getting chased away from the feeder, so every day I separated and fed him. He gets 2+ duck eggs daily and corn and unlimited crumbles. He loves the eggs. His group has been out with the big chickens during the day for about a week. He might look slightly better, but still very thin

Do you separate and feed him only once a day? Or twice?

If you don't have the time to separate him out 3 times a day to feed him... I would put him into his own cage fir a week, so he has full constant access to feed, without being bullied.


If the pullets are good to him, and it is only the older birds/established flock that is the issue... then I would put all 4 young Spitz into their own area or tractor.

 

[MeanCheek]

Do you separate and feed him only once a day? Or twice?

If you don't have the time to separate him out 3 times a day to feed him... I would put him into his own cage fir a week, so he has full constant access to feed, without being bullied.


If the pullets are good to him, and it is only the older birds/established flock that is the issue... then I would put all 4 young Spitz into their own area or tractor.

He's been getting two private meals a day. At night he is in the chick hutch (in the big chicken coop, but separated) with a pair of polish bantams, an OEGB cockerel, and the three spitz pullets. During the day he and his group get to free-range with the other birds.
I don't really think he is getting bullied.
I wonder why he's so thin?

 

[NatJ]

He's been getting two private meals a day. At night he is in the chick hutch (in the big chicken coop, but separated) with a pair of polish bantams, an OEGB cockerel, and the three spitz pullets. During the day he and his group get to free-range with the other birds.
I don't really think he is getting bullied.
I wonder why he's so thin?

He might be a naturally-slender chicken, but if he's noticeably skinnier than the others of the same breed that probably isn't the answer.

He might have been getting bullied before, since you mentioned some improvement in the week you've been giving him private meals. So he might just need more time.

Maybe worms or other parasites? I would expect those to affect all the chickens, not just him, but if he was stressed for other reasons he might show more effects.

I assume you've checked for crossbeak or anything else obvious that would make it harder for him to eat.

Since he free-ranges in the daytime, he probably gets plenty of grit. (If his food wasn't getting ground up right, he might not get enough nutrients from it. That is not a common problem even in chickens with no grit, but it certainly should not be his problem.)

It's possible for a chicken to have some kind of internal abnormality that causes them to not grow well. That is pretty rare, but not impossible. There's no easy way to check for or treat such a thing, especially given how many things there are inside a chicken that "could" go wrong.

That's all the things I can think of. You can make sure he keeps getting plenty to eat, and you might take a sample of his droppings to a vet to check for worms (treat if needed), but I don't know of anything else you can usefully do in this situation.