Feather Trouble

[Lady Hermione]

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Who is he housed with? What's it look like? To me it looks similar to when a hen gets over mated, so I would think it's being rubbed.

 

[TwoCrows]

His entire body looks over preened along with the spot that @oldhenlikesdogs suggested was rubbed, which it does looked rubbed to me too. They will over preen for dietary reasons, stress, boredom or habitual.

First I would check him for bugs although something tells me this could be dietary? His tail looks very thin, feathers break very easily if the diet is not up to par, they can also break off at the skin. Liver disease can also cause them to over preen the feathers until they are stalks only.

What are you feeding him? If you don't have him on a flock raiser or even chick starter, I would get him on one of these. If you are offering up Layer for hens, it's possible he is not eating it. Some roo's won't eat layer with all the calcium in it.

You might also get some Poly Vi Sol into him. 1/4 ml once a day for a while. The feathers won't heal over until he molts them out, but it may stop the over preening and feather breaking.

 

[Lady Hermione]

His entire body looks over preened along with the spot that @oldhenlikesdogs suggested was rubbed, which it does looked rubbed to me too. They will over preen for dietary reasons, stress, boredom or habitual.

First I would check him for bugs although something tells me this could be dietary? His tail looks very thin, feathers break very easily if the diet is not up to par, they can also break off at the skin. Liver disease can also cause them to over preen the feathers until they are stalks only.

What are you feeding him? If you don't have him on a flock raiser or even chick starter, I would get him on one of these. If you are offering up Layer for hens, it's possible he is not eating it. Some roo's won't eat layer with all the calcium in it.

You might also get some Poly Vi Sol into him. 1/4 ml once a day for a while. The feathers won't heal over until he molts them out, but it may stop the over preening and feather breaking.

Hello, I just feed him the same as the hens. I hadn't thought about the calcium in the layer food not being a proper diet for him. They eat organic layer pellets and scratch grains and fruits, bananas, and veggies, oats, tuna. They eat better than most people. He's is not separated from them. If I feed him some chick starter will that be okay for all of them? It's cold so perhaps extra protein is good right now? What is rubbed? (Thanks)

 

[Lady Hermione]

Who is he housed with? What's it look like? To me it looks similar to when a hen gets over mated, so I would think it's being rubbed.

Does rubbed mean rubbing agaist something?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Does rubbed mean rubbing agaist something?

Yes. If he's in a smaller coop or tight quarters he could be rubbing against stuff.

 

[aart]

They eat better than most people.

Except chickens have different dietary needs than people.

I feed flock raiser with oyster shell in a separate container for the layers, and a bit of scratch daily to get protein level to about 19%.

Those feathers won't look better until he molts and grows new ones.

 

[Lady Hermione]

Yes I know that about chickens having different dietary needs than people. I give them all scratch grains daily along with Layer pellets and he does eat the scratch grains a lot more than pellets. However the theory is that the layer food having too much calcium is making him not want to eat it so he may not be getting enough of essential nutrients. If I put out the chick starter or grower along with layer pellets do you think the hens will prefer that as well as the rooster and could that be bad for them? I have not used one labled flock raiser. Is there a difference between that and starter/grower? (Thanks)