Chicks with bare skin near chest area...Please help!

[poultrycrazy711]

As far as I know only two chicks have this. It is a bare area of skin without many feathers-a couple of pinfeathers, and the bare patch continues in a line down the chicks stomach. One of the chicks that has it is a feather legged breed and the other we think is a leghorn, but not sure. They are eating, drinking, and pooping as normal. they don't appear any less active. Their bedding in pine, NOT CEDAR, shavings. Most of or all of the 19 chicks in the brooder peck at the shavings and so I doubt it is crop bound. I will try to post pictures in a short while. Please suggest what it might be!!

 

[chickschool]

Have you noticed any other chicks pecking or pulling them out? How old are they? I know that sometimes I've had chicks seems almost bald while feathering out. Especially if the shaft covering the new feathers hasn't fallen off yet.

 

[poultrycrazy711]

The chicks are only about 4-6 days old, (they started hatching on Thursday and continued through Saturday). I've seen them peck at each others feet sometimes but I don't think they've been pecking at eachother's chest feathers to that extent. Besides, the bare spot are on their stomach and chest. The other chicks would have had to flip the 2 chicks over to get at where the patches are.

 

[chkn]

Well, I'm no expert on the little ones but they may have some parasites like depluming mites or something. I'd look into supplements (maybe Sav-A-Chick). It seems there may be some illness with feather loss as a side effect but then they'd be more sickly.