Eating their own feathers?

[speckledhen]

Sandra, could that nutrient be Methionine? Mine sure do get sunflower seeds in their scratch mix so that isn't an issue for my feather eaters. Mine don't pluck each other, just eat feathers off the ground.

 

[SandraChick]

Speckled hen reminded me that the missing compound is called methionine.

I found an article for quail that describes the problem and have the link and some excerpts below.

http://msucares.com/poultry/game/poultry_feathers.html

A methionine deficient bird will tend to eat feathers in an attempt to satisfy its craving for this amino acid. A bird may even pull them from its own body. The problem can not be treated by merely increasing the protein level of the diet. Methionine deficiencies can result with high protein diets if a poor quality protein ingredient is used.

There are many possible causes for poor feathering, but the problem is most often produced by a nutritional deficiency. The most common reason for poor feathers is a dietary deficiency of a critical protein constituent (amino acid) called methionine. The feathers of birds contain high levels of this protein subunit and it is required for maintaining proper body growth. Methionine is one of only a few amino acids that contain sulfur, and sulfur is a major constituent of feathers. If bird diets are deficient in any single amino acid, it will most likely be methionine.

There you go!

Sandra​

 

[RyanAndMeri]

Good to know, thanks for the info!!

 

[SandraChick]

Speckled Hen and others-


My girls free range....and I believe free range chickens balance their own diets....so they basically get everything free choice. We spread sunflower seeds/scratch for the wild birds and our chickens will get their fill and will also check under the bird feeders.

The ONLY time I've ever seen my chickens eat feathers is when I first bring them home. I'm not so sure it's such a "normal" thing.

Sandra

 

[skatcatla]

Yes, I want to emphasize that they are NOT pulling feathers off each other or themselves. Its more that if they are walking around my yard and happen to come across a loose one, they will sometimes just slurp it up like spaghetti.

But not always..there are often loose feathers in the henhouse and run that just sit there untouched. So it seems to be somewhat random.

 

[LindaN]

Interesting bit of information. The article doesn't say anything about what FOODS to feed that increase methionine, though, just to add it to the feed.

Anyone know?

I've seen one of my hens eat feathers that are on the ground, too. When I first saw it I though, "Well, no wonder they add chicken feathers to animal feed, the chickens gave them the idea!"

 

[Half-a-dozen]

Speaking of the foods (someone mentioned sunflower seeds) Can you give chickens sunflower seeds???
The kind that comes out of the birdfood bags???
And what about regular bird seed? Can they eat that too???

 

[speckledhen]

Sandra, mine free range as well, so I'm not sure about the cause. I only see my Ameraucanas do this, no other breeds I own. Odd, isn't it? Granted, they do not get as much daily time out of the pen as the main flock does, but neither do the Blue Orps and they do not eat feathers at all. Interesting puzzle here with it being breed-related in my case.
***cgrn, I just buy a bag of black oil sunflower seeds without the other seed and add it to their 5-grain scratch mix, which already contains them, but not as much as I want.

 

[SandraChick]

YUP--- CGRN......I buy black oil sunflower seeds in 50# sacks at the feed store........then again-- I feed 100-150 wild band-tailed pigeons too! Chickens are cheap compared to my wild bird feed bill!!!!!

And for the question that will come up soon (as it always does)-- It is just fine to give it to them in the shell---it's not too big (not even for bantams!)

Sandra

 

[rooster-red]

Mine get plenty of sunflower seeds daily, but out of the 16 chickens I have, 1 eats feathers constantly.
She's 1 of 3 RIR hens I have.

She also happens to be the dumbest member of my flock, don't know if it has anything to do with it, but its a fact.