banty bit and PULLED on the eye of one of my EE's

[alalele]

... but EE looks ok, no injury I guess, but it freaked my out! This happened during introductions and I was watching closely as the little banty was pecking at feet and eyes of chicks up to 3x her size!!!

I've notice my little chicks like shiny things, like my ring.. but they aren't as aggressive or fierce about it. This banty is very aggressively pecking eyes, feet and biting and ripping at feathers, and I don't like it.

I'm thinking of trading the banty anyway, because even though she's calmed down somewhat, she is way more aggressive than the others I have (EE's & Australorp).

When it happened, I was looking down from top of brooder and saw the banty grab the eye and pulled what appeared to be clear tissue away from the eye like a rubbery clear contact lenses... the EE chick pulled back and the clear tissue (cornea???) SNAPPED back in place.

There was no sqawk of pain, the EE just blinked a few times and moved away.

While the EE's eye looks to be fine... but can someone tell me if they have seen this happen before? It makes me wonder just how TOUGH these birds eyes are afterall? Could there be damage I can't see?

 

[d.k]

*I believe chickens have an transparent inner eyelid. That may be what the banty got hold of.