Eating dropped feathers...

[singwithmylife]

Noob question... If my 8-week old pullets are eating all of the free-floating random feathers but not pulling them out of each other should I be concerned or is that pretty standard? I just switched them off of the chick starter feed (20% protein) and on to the pullet developer (16% protein) from IFA (a local farm store chain). Now I'm wondering if they're not getting enough protein... They did peck the hell out of one chicken who I believe is a rooster but I'm not certain if that's related since none of the others are missing any feathers... I think it was because that one was super slow to feather and they just got curious but I'm totally green at this so I may be way off...

I have been feeding them dried mealworms and some chicken scratch once a day as well. For the henpecked little lad, I've been feeding about half of a scrambled egg once a day too to try to encourage fast feather growth. Poor little sod. It's been two days since I found him a mess and I'm already seeing some little feather sprouts.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'd prefer a little higher protein for still growing chicks, so I'd consider supplementing protein or mixing in some of the starter to bump it up a bit.

That said, I wouldn't worry too much if they're eating shed feathers.