Excessive preening?

[babsh]

I have a 10 week old Sebright/Silkie cross. She was attacked by another chick recently so we had her in the house for a week. Now she loves being in the house and I've been allowing my daughter to bring her in for a couple of hours each day.

I have noticed that she seems to preen a lot. When she does, she leaves a pile of 'dandruff' around her. Looks like tiny particles of the feather cuticles. Do chickens preen this much or is it a sign that something is wrong? I have looked her over for mites/lice and do not see anything. She doesn't appear to itch. Just seems to want to preen LOTS.

Thanks,

Barb

 

[babsh]

bump

 

[suburbanminifarm]

Normal. It's just "bird dust---- the outside of her emerging pin feather like you said. But look veeerrryyy closely arould her tail area on her skin for the nearly invisible feather mites that silkies are so prone to.
Tell her to be neater with her preening if she ever wants to be invited to be a house chicken......

 

[Keara]

I bet if you had the others in the house you would notice the same thing. Her feathers coming in and it itches. The coating on the feathers as they emerge is what makes the dust.

 

[babsh]

Quote:
Thank you. I thought the big issue with having a chicken in the house would be the poop. But this preening thing is getting to be a bigger issue. She is almost constantly preening. I have little dust piles on my couch, on my desk, etc.

Barb

p.s. She, unfortunately, did not get the Silkie feathering. We were so disappointed, but then found out the gene for that is recessive.

 

[babsh]

Quote:
Don't tell my daughter. She will want to bring all of the other chickens in to compare.

I guess I'll just assume it's normal. But dang, it's messy.

Barb