Feather Picking

[Little Fuzzy]

Excellent post Lazy gardener. I wish I knew how to give an Ovation.

 

[bobbi-j]

Excellent post Lazy gardener. I wish I knew how to give an Ovation.

Look in the bottom right corner of the post and click on the green thumbs up sign.

 

[chickens really]

Lots of times it can either be from lack of protein or a bad habit....Sometimes a Bird will even over groom themselves and eat their own feathers off......Last year I had a Barred Rock who was totally bald on her back and her tail only had one feather....I thought the other hens were eating her feathers? They were helping but she was doing the eating.....I sold that entire flock of 6 to an older couple....She still is bald...You could try separating her and put Stop-pick on her...It is a red gel...Cayenne pepper based to try and break the habit......


Cheers!

 

[azygous]

Feather picking in my flock has given me tons of experience with this issue over the years. I've concluded that diet only plays a small role, if any, in most cases. Of course, it's one of the first things you should try since it's an easy fix if it works. I like Purina (not necessarily the company) Flock Raiser and feed it to my entire flock all the time. And I ferment it for added nutrients.

Even still, certain members of my flock, come spring, are starting to shave feathers again, and they continue into the summer, letting up as hormones decrease in the fall and molt begins. It's led me to believe this problem may be seasonal as well as temperament sourced.

I had a very extreme case a few years back where the individual pursued her feather picking in a frenzied obsession. I tried everything with her and nothing worked for long. I concluded the wiring in her brain was just different, driving her to this behavior. I finally had to segregate her as I do with the others who ramp up this behavior in spring. The current pickers are all of one breed (SS), by the way, further pointing to temperament as an underlying cause, not diet. In all these cases, none responded to a diet supplemented with high grade animal protein.

Also, in the case of your hen, the feather loss may be due to a chronic disease. I had one like that. She had trouble replacing lost feathers and would molt only halfway, then stop, retaining a bedraggled plumage for the rest of the winter and summer. In her final year, she couldn't molt at all and had a miserable winter with a nearly bald body huddling beneath a heat lamp for warmth on single digit days.

Okay, now that I've laid out my case for feather picking being a complex issue with no single, easy fix, here's what you can try. The idea of a saddle is a good one. It will protect the feathers as they grow beyond the blood-rich pin feather stage which are especially tempting to pluck out and eat. When you start seeing well formed feathers on your girl, remove the saddle so it won't rub and ruin the new feathers.

You can also identify the culprits that are most aggressive pickers and install pinless peepers on them. That often times solves the problem quickly.

Go ahead and start feeding a higher protein feed and supplement with mackerel or other animal protein in case there's a dietary issue.

If all else fails, segregate the culprits during the day to prevent access to the victims. Mine have their own pen.

 

[Little Fuzzy]

I once owned a Cockatiel that pulled his own feathers, he was bald for 25 years. Nervous but sweet bird. I guess chickens can have the same problems.

 

[lizardboy55]

Lots of times it can either be from lack of protein or a bad habit....Sometimes a Bird will even over groom themselves and eat their own feathers off......Last year I had a Barred Rock who was totally bald on her back and her tail only had one feather....I thought the other hens were eating her feathers? They were helping but she was doing the eating.....I sold that entire flock of 6 to an older couple....She still is bald...You could try separating her and put Stop-pick on her...It is a red gel...Cayenne pepper based to try and break the habit......


Cheers!

I should try that! Any idea where I could get stop-pick?

 

[lizardboy55]

Feather picking in my flock has given me tons of experience with this issue over the years. I've concluded that diet only plays a small role, if any, in most cases. Of course, it's one of the first things you should try since it's an easy fix if it works. I like Purina (not necessarily the company) Flock Raiser and feed it to my entire flock all the time. And I ferment it for added nutrients.

Even still, certain members of my flock, come spring, are starting to shave feathers again, and they continue into the summer, letting up as hormones decrease in the fall and molt begins. It's led me to believe this problem may be seasonal as well as temperament sourced.

I had a very extreme case a few years back where the individual pursued her feather picking in a frenzied obsession. I tried everything with her and nothing worked for long. I concluded the wiring in her brain was just different, driving her to this behavior. I finally had to segregate her as I do with the others who ramp up this behavior in spring. The current pickers are all of one breed (SS), by the way, further pointing to temperament as an underlying cause, not diet. In all these cases, none responded to a diet supplemented with high grade animal protein.

Also, in the case of your hen, the feather loss may be due to a chronic disease. I had one like that. She had trouble replacing lost feathers and would molt only halfway, then stop, retaining a bedraggled plumage for the rest of the winter and summer. In her final year, she couldn't molt at all and had a miserable winter with a nearly bald body huddling beneath a heat lamp for warmth on single digit days.

Okay, now that I've laid out my case for feather picking being a complex issue with no single, easy fix, here's what you can try. The idea of a saddle is a good one. It will protect the feathers as they grow beyond the blood-rich pin feather stage which are especially tempting to pluck out and eat. When you start seeing well formed feathers on your girl, remove the saddle so it won't rub and ruin the new feathers.

You can also identify the culprits that are most aggressive pickers and install pinless peepers on them. That often times solves the problem quickly.

Go ahead and start feeding a higher protein feed and supplement with mackerel or other animal protein in case there's a dietary issue.

If all else fails, segregate the culprits during the day to prevent access to the victims. Mine have their own pen.

Thank you so much! Thanks you for sharing your experience! I will try all those ideas!

 

[azygous]

Please don't waste time on cayenne pepper based deterrents. Chickens lack the taste receptors for hot and spicy, happily gorging on the hottest of hot peppers.

The one taste deterrent that birds respond to is grape flavor. A homemade concoction of grape Kool Aid sugarless powder, Vick's, and Pepto Bismol may work. You can buy Rooster Booster Pick-no-mor but it's never worked for the pickers in my flock. The mess isn't worth the money you spend on it, and some of them happily eat the goop right off the victim as if it was a tasty treat.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I really like Azygous’s posts. I may not 100% agree with everything she said but she is giving you a lot of good information. I feed hot peppers to my chickens, they love the ripe red ones. Maybe there is something else in that sugarless grape kool-aid but mine enjoy standing under a grape vine and jumping up to pick ripe grapes. It’s hilarious to watch. I don’t think it’s the grape flavor that’s effective. I think it’s probably something in the kool-aid.

I think space is the most important part of this. When chickens are kept in close confinement behavioral problems escalate. It’s not just feather-picking but all kinds of brutal behaviors.

I don’t put much into a high protein diet being all that important. Maybe in some cases it does help but I feed mine a 15% protein feed most of the time, along with forage and various garden and kitchen scraps. When I have baby chicks with the flock I feed a 20% Starter to everyone. The only time I had a feather-picking problem was when one specific hen pecked the feathers off my rooster’s neck, then kept going until he started to bleed. I isolated him for a couple of days until it started to heal and put him back with the flock. That ended the behavior.

Something not mentioned is that some hens have brittle feathers. I’ve had a few of those but did not allow them to breed and now don’t have that problem. It can be genetic based. Some hens just don’t process the nutrients needed to keep their feathers not-brittle so their feathers easily break off. A lot of cockerels and roosters literally lose their heads, not because they are doing anything wrong but because the hen’s feathers are so brittle they just very easily break off.

If the feathers come out completely the feathers normally grow back. If part of the shaft is left in the feather will not grow back until she molts. But each chicken is an individual. We can talk about what normally or generally happens but that doesn’t necessarily apply to individuals.

 

[aart]

... I have her separated right now and it's causing the other hens to fight due to the lack of space ....

Not sure how removing one bird would make the flock fight.....unless they are rearranging the pecking order in her absence.
Putting her back in is going to cause another change in pecking order.

... The coop is the correct size. ...

I seriously doubt this.....you should take a good, hard, honest look (with a tape measure) at your space.
Crowding is about the number one cause of behavioral problems.