Chicken Eating Feathers — Plucking Chickens Bare

[Stacyoung13]

I think that those two are buddied up and just see the third as an easy target if you can, get the silver a buddy the same age an isolate them together so they can bond. Then maybe you can introduce them back to the reds. Chickens are weird and will buddy up and not accept others into their flock. I have three chickens and two are very bonded but the third is kind of on the out skirts of the other two, but she is the dominant hen. So we don't have feather ripping.

My silver hen has a mate, a silver roo the same age. The three reds hatched 8 days before the 2 silvers. They all grew up together. I introduced them to the 3 adults about 2 weeks ago, keeping fence between them for first week. Everything has been great until this past Saturday. At first I thought it was the adult roo (gator), but I caught the three young reds pecking her.

 

[Stacyoung13]

Could it be the food? I took them off the baby feed and started them on the layer feed when I done the introduction. I also give them scratch mixed with mealworms once a day.

 

[Folly's place]

Layer feed plus scratch is deficient in protein, at least. Change to an all-flock feed, and eliminate the scratch for now. It's meant as a treat, in small quantities only.
Mary

 

[Stacyoung13]

Is there something I can add to the feed? I just bought 50lb, bag of layer feed.

 

[lazy gardener]

Give them a fist full of cat food every day. If you want to do the math, you could figure out how much cat food to add to bring the protein up to 20%. Not a best choice, but better than waiting until you've used the new bag of feed to fix the problem.

 

[Folly's place]

If it hasn't been opened, can you return it?
Mary

 

[Stacyoung13]

If it hasn't been opened, can you return it?
Mary

Yeah, i had to open it the day I bought it. I mixed some dry and canned dog food (i have 0 cats but 3 dogs) together and added about 1\2 cup of the mix to their feed. I'm hoping that will do the trick. For now anyways.

 

[Nutmeg15]

Hi all, thank you for the great advice. Unfortunately, even after switching to a feed with higher protein and adding extra protein-rich snacks every once in a while, the feather pulling has gotten worse. Clover the brahma is almost completely bald on her butt, saddle, and under her wings, and her sister Poppy is now being plucked under her wings. I currently don't have another coop available to separate them from the rest of the flock, but I keep putting Pick-No-More on the two brahmas. I believe Pumpkin is still the one plucking, but I don't know when it happens anymore because they seem to be getting balder each day when I'm not around. Is there anything else I can do to stop this? I'm stumped. I bought chicken blinders to put on Pumpkin as a last resort to see if that fixes the problem, though I hate having to do that.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Feather plucking is usually carried on against the neck and saddle hackles. These feathers that remain often have the appearance of spit curls that have been produced with a hot curling iron.

It sounds like you have depluming or feather mites, which are too tiny to see with the naked eye.

Dipping in a mixture of water and concentrated liquid Permethrin may be necessary to control feather mites.

There is a human form of depluming mites and here are some examples. enjoy.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs...dV4ps9wvw/s1600/Right+neck_1.jpg&action=click

 

[Nutmeg15]

Feather plucking is usually carried on against the neck and saddle hackles. These feathers that remain often have the appearance of spit curls that have been produced with a hot curling iron.

It sounds like you have depluming or feather mites, which are too tiny to see with the naked eye.

Dipping in a mixture of water and concentrated liquid Permethrin may be necessary to control feather mites.

There is a human form of depluming mites and here are some examples. enjoy.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=human+demodex+mites+symptoms&fr=yhs-pty-pty_email&hspart=pty&hsimp=yhs-pty_email&imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vqwNPa4O40o/Tr2LsPKCGpI/AAAAAAAAAb8/G4dV4ps9wvw/s1600/Right+neck_1.jpg#id=4&iurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vqwNPa4O40o/Tr2LsPKCGpI/AAAAAAAAAb8/G4dV4ps9wvw/s1600/Right+neck_1.jpg&action=click

I thought this might be the cause of it too. However, I had Clover tested (it came back negative, though I still bought the medication just in case) and the entire flock was treated for depluming mites when the feather picking first started happening. I saw one of my other hens, Pumpkin, plucking out feathers and eating them when that was first going on. While I haven’t seen her in particular do it in several weeks, I’ve pretty much ruled out mites since I have continuously treated the whole flock with no improvements to the feather pulling. Thank you for your answer!