FINCHforum

i have 3 chicks in the nest one is 17 days old and is almost fully featherd one is 16 days old and is catching up but the smallest one which is also 16 days old is much smaller and only have wing feathers and a bit of feathers going down its body . the mother gets egg food daily and seeds , and i top them up usually 2 - 4 times daily
any reason why this could be ? not enough nutrition ?

Hmm, do you think the small bird could be getting sort of pushed out of the way by its siblings during feeding? Your nutrition sounds great, but it might just not be getting fed enough, or it might be runty and too weak to compete with the others. In the wild, the weakest chick is often starved out, and is typically very small compared to the others.

Is the room very cold?

If you have any experience handfeeding, or are willing to try it, I would suggest feeding the baby bird yourself a few times a day and then putting it back in the nest until it seems more caught up. I've had a lot of success with this.

MrBrittsBirds

Give the small one extra feedings of Bird Baby Formula (3 or 4 times a day), and don't feed the other two. You will see the little one catch up.

Thanks . Also iv seen a couple of them have poop stuck to their back sides dried up . Could this be a problem ? Iv removed it off one of them in waiting till there crop empties to remove it off the other two . If I clean the nest out will the hen reject the chicks

MrBrittsBirds If the poop is actually preventing them from pooping and plugging them up, then yes, it can be a problem.

If you can mange to steal the nesting material and put in new, she shouldn't abandon from that, but if you take the nest out of the cage she might. What sort of nest box/basket do you have them in?

Hi I have a nest man with a nest matt inside it's like a circle price of carpet designed for canary nests and you stick it in the pan . It's got quite a bit of poop on it so I think I should clean it .

MrBrittsBirds yeah, that should be pretty easy to just slip out from under the chicks, and then slide a new one in.

Unless she's a very nervous hen, she most likely won't abandon.

Iv just cleaned the nest pan I haven't got another matt but Ilet have one tonight so I just cleared all the poop off with a scraper , she's just fed the chicks too

Do the chicks look an ok size for 17 days old

MrBrittsBirds Well, the fully feathered one does, but both the other two look under sized. The smallest one is reeeallly small.

I strongly suggest you do some hand feeding. Do you have baby bird formula?

iv been topping them up regularly , iv run out of formula so iv been using moist egg food . i top them up around 3 times a day , they have also started to sleep with there head behind near there wings

MrBrittsBirds Well it sounds like you're doing everything you should be!

As far as I know, it's normal for birds to sleep with their heads under their wings.