Any hope for a feather picker?

[HerbiLady]

Quote:
Thanks WoodlandWoman. I try to use the electric space heater in the RV they're in and the lights as little as possible. I crack the windows open for ventilation as well. They only have a red light on them at night when it's really cold (below 45 degrees) and they have natural light with good ventilation during the day and if any additional heat is necessary, I use the red light although with the natural light from the windows, I'm not sure what difference it makes. There is a darker corner of the brooder they can hang out in as well but they prefer the light. They did have a day of heat stress on Friday and they were ready to move to another brooder. I moved them into a 2.5' x 8' brooder on Saturday. It seems sufficient for now but I know I"ll have to expand that in another week or so. Do you think that's still too small? If I can keep it warm enough at night, I turn off the red light so they do have darkness at night.

I would say that I keep them on the cooler side, actually, because I"m terrified of overheating. They don't huddle or anything or crowd under the red light at night when I use it.

 

[HerbiLady]

Update...

I have 2 SS chicks incarcerated and the other chicks in the brooder seem fine. Not seeing any abnormal interest in the feathers of others among the rest of the chicks although they do peck at specks of shavings or poop on each other occasionally. Blue-bum-Betty the BO chick with the picked tail seems to be fine and no one is pecking at her. She's a little dumpy but eating and roosting and drinking. I'm thinking that ingesting whatever pine tar and/or blue-kote she gets when preening her pathetic looking backside has her feeling a bit down.

The 2 prisoners were let out with the general population today for a minute to see what would happen and IMMEDIATELY started the downy-feather picking. So back into chick jail for them. I mean, they didn't even bother to do anything else...just homed in on a BO chick roosting and started picking at it's chest down. They aren't pecking at each other in their prison though and they're eating and what have you. Strange.

 

[lilblessings5]

I feel your frustration!