If disaster should befall the larger chick the parent can switch to feeding the youngest and it will exhibit a constant growth curve from the day of active feeding. From Wikipedia
Depends, a repo stays on credit for 7 years, and a bankruptcy stays for 11 years, after you have paid off a debt and they have received payment it should be taken of immediately, but you may want to get a free credit report and check and if it is still there call them and ask them about it.
Dealing with an old charge-off can actually work against you. Charge-offs will drop off of your credit report after seven years. If you make a payment to settle an old charge-off, it will actually update the date of the charge-off and it will appear on your credit report for another seven years. The only exception would be if you can get them to agree to remove the account entirely from your report. Again, get it in writing.