problems with feathers

mlonglong

In the Brooder
5 Years
Oct 27, 2014
4
0
40
hi everyone, i am new here, i got an account here just for ask something. i have two birds, one is a female and the other is a male. they are hybrids (the ones you eat, Cornish x Plymouth Rock White), i rescued them from the chick factory (they were discarted, i mean the ones that were deformed, had some eggshell "glued", and with no feathers/down) they were going to be sacrified. i picked 4 the best ones, one was killed by my dog (the first day), another died 2 days after because it had a strange disease (he had the head against his back, like a neurological disease) and survived two. one (the male, he had no down developed) didn´t get feathers like the female (because of slow "feathering" gene), he is now 1 and a half month old (like 6 weeks), he is incredible heavy (is three times larger than the female) i think he weights 3-4 Kg but he has troubles growing feathers near his cloaca and chest, he poops himself on that area. i wonder what can i do to make them grow faster. and i had another problem 3 days ago, he is so heavy and tried to jump to a fence and fell and broke one of his wings, i was worried but he feels good and it is healing well. they eat everything, grass, rest of foods, dog food (when they can), worms, insects and the food that is specialy made for chickens. they´re so bright and vibrant (but the male´s feathers are like ugh, they are in so bad shape) but his skin and his scomb is very red, and i think it is good.
(sorry for my english)
 
I realy wouldn't fuss over them too much. They are meant for eating and have a very short life span because of their fast weight gain. They aren't going to be around long enough to need their feathers. If you were thinking of keeping them as pets you made an unfortunate choice of breeds. In rare cases some people have kept one alive for longer but for the most part they were developed for early butchering. Sorry.
 
Agree, what you're running into is just part of keeping cornish cross. They can be healthy and live a decent-ish life, but not all of them. They tend to run bald on the chest/belly area, and if your guy is that large already, he's likely to die of a weight related issue within the next month or so. Sorry.
 
Welcome to backyard chickens! Most meat birds (to my understanding) don't live long, like two past replyers have said. Sorry to hear about the other two :'( I guess enjoy the time you have with em. And even more after. NOM NOM.
 
when i kept them i knew that they´ll not live long, they tell me that they´ll live 2 or 3 years max, the cornish hybrids are slaughtered at 49 days old with 3,3Kg, and they tell me that they can weight 5 Kg easily. they are so intelligent, i understimate their intelligence. I´ll put him on a diet, more insects and grass than their food, is it good idea? (i wonder if they´ll get nutriotional problems for their high nutritional requierements). and when they don´t eat (like in the night when they sleep, they sleep 10 hs a day) at the morining they have hughe diarrhea (i know in common chickens it does not happen, doesn´t it?), when they eat pellets (chicken food) their feces are smelly, beige and liquid, but when they eat grass they are black, solid and with no smell.
 

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