Cures for the molting blues?

[Noble Rooster]

I have a 14-month-old Faverolle who is molting hard and seems to be feeling pretty lousy while doing so. She won't come out of the coop unless I bring her out and she is barely eating. I've been giving supplemental protein like BOSS, flock raiser, yogurt, scrambled eggs, meat scraps, mealworms, etc. and just bought some gamebird/show bird feed today. Everyone else loves all the protein but poor Pumpkin just takes little nibbles of mealworm and that's about it. Her crop is nearly empty when I check it and I can feel she has lost weight. She is drinking, thankfully and her eyes are bright enough; it just seems like she feels crummy and I am concerned about the not eating since we're approaching nearly a week with it. I thought chickens became even more ravenous when they molted? Has anyone else experienced molting anorexia before?

 

[harmesonfarm]

I'm not sure if I know much more than you, but I do have a barred rock going through the same thing.
Only had her for a week but is going through a hard molt and is really very skinny it worries me, same thing with the eating. She forages a little bit but not as much as the others. Gets picked on a little bit by the other barred rock so I wonder if that has to do with it too...
I'm just hoping she'll snap out of it as some of her feathers come back, I have read before that some birds who do hard molt tend to lose weight.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Many become very uncomfortable and stressed out, sounds like you are doing all you can, some of mine hide for a week or two, molting is physically hard, and the seasonal weather changes don't help any either.

 

[Teila]

My little bantie has been through two hard moults and both times has been a very unhappy little girl.

She hid in the coop both times and while the flock is not particularly fond of the wind, she was even more sensitive during the moult.

I agree that it sounds like you are doing everything you can for her but remember that picking her up or touching her can also be uncomfortable/painful for her.

I have found that while the feather regrowth and moult process can take a couple of months or more in it’s entirety, Dusty only seems to have the blues for a couple of weeks, max.

Dusty [aka dust bin

] loves her food so I have to be honest that I did not notice a decrease.