Completely bald 6 week old chick

[Hthr765]

I’m not really sure where I should post this, because it’s not really an emergency, injury or anything of the like….

I had hatched out some of our own chicks and, this one in particular was solid black up until it reached 6weeks of age- then it’s feathers started falling out, not like a molt- it went completely bald! (I may have a pic of it somewhere and if I do, I’ll post it) This chick had literally no feathers on it… I thought ok, I’ll check for bugs, but being an inside brooder, I didn’t think it could get them, but I still checked, and I checked the other chicks as well- nothing! I separated it because I thought maybe the others were pulling its feathers out- nope it still lost them….made sure it had vitamins mixed in with the feed or water…. As the other chicks, it hatched with got moved out to their new coop, this poor thing had to stay inside with the new set of hatchling’s because it just didn’t have any feathers and needed the heat lamp…. By 12 weeks, it finally started to get feathers again but they now have a white lacing on them instead of solid black, and she looks very different (mainly the way her coloring came in because it’s not all over like a Wyandotte) than any chicken that I’ve ever seen, and she also is apparently rumpless now (I think that’s what it’s called- no tail feathers?) she does currently still have a few splotchy areas where her feathers have not come in fully but have the beginnings of feathers sprouting up

So after many unsuccessful googling attempts to try to figure out why her feathers did that, I’m wondering if anyone has ever experienced this before….

Btw: she’s always been healthy other than her extreme feather loss

Here are pics of her now

 

[Gigachad poultry]

I’m not really sure where I should post this, because it’s not really an emergency, injury or anything of the like….

I had hatched out some of our own chicks and, this one in particular was solid black up until it reached 6weeks of age- then it’s feathers started falling out, not like a molt- it went completely bald! (I may have a pic of it somewhere and if I do, I’ll post it) This chick had literally no feathers on it… I thought ok, I’ll check for bugs, but being an inside brooder, I didn’t think it could get them, but I still checked, and I checked the other chicks as well- nothing! I separated it because I thought maybe the others were pulling its feathers out- nope it still lost them….made sure it had vitamins mixed in with the feed or water…. As the other chicks, it hatched with got moved out to their new coop, this poor thing had to stay inside with the new set of hatchling’s because it just didn’t have any feathers and needed the heat lamp…. By 12 weeks, it finally started to get feathers again but they now have a white lacing on them instead of solid black, and she looks very different (mainly the way her coloring came in because it’s not all over like a Wyandotte) than any chicken that I’ve ever seen, and she also is apparently rumpless now (I think that’s what it’s called- no tail feathers?) she does currently still have a few splotchy areas where her feathers have not come in fully but have the beginnings of feathers sprouting up

So after many unsuccessful googling attempts to try to figure out why her feathers did that, I’m wondering if anyone has ever experienced this before….

Btw: she’s always been healthy other than her extreme feather loss

Here are pics of her now View attachment 3579331View attachment 3579331View attachment 3579332View attachment 3579331View attachment 3579332View attachment 3579333View attachment 3579334View attachment 3579335View attachment 3579336

I think she's being bullied alot and the other chickens are pulling out her feathers.

 

[Chickeroonie keeper]

I don’t think it’s a bullying issue. Could it be something with vitamins or something of the sort? That’s a bizarre story! Good to know she grew all her feathers back though

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They likely need more protein and are eating feathers to recover the missing protien

 

[Hthr765]

We actually get our feed from the mill because we have close to 300+ layers, as well as exotics, so it’s a lot cheaper and also way better for them and plus we can keep an eye on what all goes in it and how much….

I never seen any of them pulling her feathers out either, and for the 2weeks she was isolated by herself, she still lost her feathers and she wasn’t pulling them out or eating them….so I’m not really convinced it was bullying/pulling feathers out

Vitamin deficiency definitely makes sense, although it’s strange that it only affected 1 out of all the others that we have…but it can happen

It’s almost like there was a glitch in the matrix and her feathers falling out, was like holdup- we have to redo what you’re supposed to look like- if that makes any sense lol

I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that before

She’s definitely a unique lil feisty thing tho