#alienart

Unlike mammals, slomen have a less refined feeding system, and the chicks have to puncture the pouch to get to the "soup". The holes are very small, much like the tips of the drinking teeth of the babies. The teeth aren't very visible in the image, but they form a triangle from the bottom jaw that directs flow into the mouth. They also help with breaking the megg, these chicks have no other teeth. The younglings generally start walking on their feet no later than two months. This is when they are fully covered in fuzz and may start growing new teeth. Though that walking isn't exactly competent. Much like baby birds, they wobble around and fall at every step, especially if they try to run. Before their famous good-enough-walk they often crawl around on their ankles, with a few just ignoring that they have legs, instead dragging themselves by their arms everywhere (a behavior important to correct early).

Slims start getting their stripe-fluff latest by half a year. These feathers are more solid than the cottony covering and all show a unique stripe pattern. While they may walk just fine, they aren't yet good speakers, and even among their age, they use signs a lot more than speech. Complex words and signs come with a better understanding of concepts. Before any of that, they can't be trusted running in the fields without an older sibling. It can sometimes take over a year before a running child can be trusted with running. By this point, some children will also slowly gain new coloration that, in some cultures, will decide their gender early. This isn't always a good idea, with how long the coat takes to develop and how much assuming has to be made based on older siblings and parent colors. So most slomen until a certain age are not gendered. The new colors always start higher on the body. So most often, the face is the first to become fully covered in "adult" feathers. But yes, this transition takes their whole childhood and only becomes faster at puberty, where other changes come.