Chicks pecking feathers out?

[Theeremmy]

Ive noticed on two of my 20 baby chicks that they are recently missing a lot of feathers down their back. Is this normal? And what Can I do to stop it? They’re pretty much to the point of being bald in a stripe down their back and I feel bad

 

[LunaTheSickChick]

I am sorry you are having to deal with this. I have had my own experiences with this nasty behavior, so I will share what I know. It starts out usually as a nutritional deficiency- a lack of protein specifically. Some folks change feed or add extra protein sources to the birds' diets, and see a marked decrease immediately. This behavior could also be in response to too crowded conditions. You will need to look at run and coop space and figure out if your birds have enough room. The guidelines are 2'/bird coop space and 10'/bird run space. These are the minimum requirements. If the behavior continues then you need to look at ways to alleviate boredom. There are many diversionary tactics you can try. If you look through the archives here you will find all kinds of ways to keep chickens amused.

If the behavior continues after adding some diversions then you need to decide what route you want to take from here. There are several products on the market to aid in stopping this behavior. I will tell you right now that they only work temporarily (if at all), and they will not work on the truly dedicated feather pickers. The products are- Vick's VapoRub, Blukote, pine tar, No Pick/Hot Pick, and pinless peepers. The first 4 are topical applications that must be reapplied often to be effective. The last one is a little chicken head gear that needs to be applied once. The only one that I had any success with was the pinless peepers. It was moderately successful in stopping the picking.

If you continue to have picking problems, then you need to look at separating the culprits from the flock either temporarily or permanently. I tried separating the birds for a couple weeks at a time, but it didn't stop them from picking. By that point I had several birds that had learned the bad habit (it is a contagious habit), so I needed to permanently remove the worst offenders. I culled out several birds before I got them all. Once I removed the birds doing the damage, within a week the damaged birds started regrowing their feathers.

I hope this helps. I suffered through this problem for a year before finally resolving it. I hope you can fix yours sooner.

Good luck.

 

[Theeremmy]

I am sorry you are having to deal with this. I have had my own experiences with this nasty behavior, so I will share what I know. It starts out usually as a nutritional deficiency- a lack of protein specifically. Some folks change feed or add extra protein sources to the birds' diets, and see a marked decrease immediately. This behavior could also be in response to too crowded conditions. You will need to look at run and coop space and figure out if your birds have enough room. The guidelines are 2'/bird coop space and 10'/bird run space. These are the minimum requirements. If the behavior continues then you need to look at ways to alleviate boredom. There are many diversionary tactics you can try. If you look through the archives here you will find all kinds of ways to keep chickens amused.

If the behavior continues after adding some diversions then you need to decide what route you want to take from here. There are several products on the market to aid in stopping this behavior. I will tell you right now that they only work temporarily (if at all), and they will not work on the truly dedicated feather pickers. The products are- Vick's VapoRub, Blukote, pine tar, No Pick/Hot Pick, and pinless peepers. The first 4 are topical applications that must be reapplied often to be effective. The last one is a little chicken head gear that needs to be applied once. The only one that I had any success with was the pinless peepers. It was moderately successful in stopping the picking.

If you continue to have picking problems, then you need to look at separating the culprits from the flock either temporarily or permanently. I tried separating the birds for a couple weeks at a time, but it didn't stop them from picking. By that point I had several birds that had learned the bad habit (it is a contagious habit), so I needed to permanently remove the worst offenders. I culled out several birds before I got them all. Once I removed the birds doing the damage, within a week the damaged birds started regrowing their feathers.

I hope this helps. I suffered through this problem for a year before finally resolving it. I hope you can fix yours sooner.

Good luck.

My fiancé and I have separated the two from the flock in hopes that they’ll grow their feathers back. The one that is the worst seems to be the smallest of the whole flock in comparison to the others. Thankfully I didn’t see any bleeding on either of them.

My fiancé is also in the process of building them a larger box as they are still too small to go in with our Rooster and larger hens. But I will definitely check out how to keep them entertained and keep an eye out for the culprits that are doing the pecking.

 

[LunaTheSickChick]

OK Good Idea, the smallest one may be the runt so they may pick on it because its the runt

 

[sylviethecochin]

How old are your chicks?

 

[Theeremmy]

How old are your chicks?

I would say they’re about 2 1/2 weeks old.

 

[ben0125]

Are they all the same breed?

 

[ChickNanny13]

LunatheSickChick gave great advice.

 

[sylviethecochin]

I would say they’re about 2 1/2 weeks old.

This may be a stupid question--but are you sure they're not just growing in their back feathers slowly? Sometimes, especially with cockerels, it looks that way as fluff becomes inadequate and feathers haven't begun proper growth.

 

[Theeremmy]

Are they all the same breed?

No I have Orphingtons, BR, and Wyandottes