4 month old Pullet losing tail feathers.

[jwyles]

Hi everyone, anyone and all! Got a quick question. I live in Louisians where it is HOT this time of year. I've been noticing an increase in feathers on the floor of my coop and after returning home from a 3 day mini vacay I realized my EE is missing some of her long tail feathers. I got her and checked for mites and saw nothing alarming (to the best of my knowledge, but I am very novice). Could the feather loss be due to the heat? Also I mentioned being away bc I usually allow them to forage for a few hours every evening but they were cooped up the entire time I was gone and I wondered if boredom may have caused feather plucking. I did add a lot of things to deter boredom but I don't know how long it actually lasted. Anyway what do you guys think? Heat, boredom, health concerns? Should I worry about it? And when will they grow back? TIA

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They generally are still do a few baby molts at that age, but I've not seen them molt out the tail feathers once they get them in, so I would wonder if something or someone pulled them out.

As far as growing back, she should get them back by winter. Tail feathers take a while to grow.

 

[jwyles]

They generally are still do a few baby molts at that age, but I've not seen them molt out the tail feathers once they get them in, so I would wonder if something or someone pulled them out.

As far as growing back, she should get them back by winter. Tail feathers take a while to grow.

Ok. I hadn't thought about the molts. I'm still a little confused as to how many molts they go through as a chick. I hope this doesn't become habit with them. Do you know a way to deter it if I see it occurring more often? Thanks!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Going from regular freedom to being cooped up can cause pecking behaviors, probably because they are stressed, and bored by the change. That would be my guess.