Eating feathers

[birdgirl408]

My new to me, 14 week old Buff Orpington is eating feathers. Just the small ones, not the huge wing feathers, although she tries to!! Not just chicken feathers either, any wild bird feathers will do. Is this a problem, I feel it could be?

 

[GitaBooks]

Feather eating is somewhat normal, but if they do it often they may be lacking sufficient protein in the diet.

 

[birdgirl408]

Thanks GittaBooks. It's only one of the three newbies that I have and I believe it's the one that doesn't eat much of the normal pellets. We call her (silly) Tilly!

 

[Chook Kingdom]

Chickens love eating feathers, mine anyways. I don't think it is good for them to eat wild bird feathers though!

 

[Akrnaf2]

They are suffering from protein deficiency in there diet, layers.need 16-18% of protein in there diet. If they don't get it they will start feather peking.

 

[birdgirl408]

Thanks for your replies guys. They aren't layers btw, they are too young.