Feathered feet pecking

[bnell910]

Wow, 16% "Grower"? and Organic, at that?? It isn't whole grain, is it?

Where are you??? That's an unusual combination here in the US, and yes, feather pecking (and eating) can be a sign of low protein, it can be a sign of stressed flock (space competition, often), and sign of other (rarer) issues as well. Good advice above - before I offer anything of substance, I'd really like to know where you are and what (brand, etc) you are feeding. You should have adequate space, that's a good amount of room for the number of birds.

Doesn't sound like dominance behaviors, either.

We are in North Carolina. Blue Seal is the brand.

 

[bnell910]

We are in North Carolina. Blue Seal is the brand.

I double checked and it's not grower, just feed....yikes I didn't even check the bag until now!

 

[3KillerBs]

Hi! We are in Wilmington, NC.

from Moore County.

In that case you should definitely get onto a higher protein feed. It *might* not be related, but it may well help.

Hopefully, with plenty of room and clutter and improved protein the problem will go away before it gets established as a habit.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Guessing you are feeding this?

As others have noted, the overall protein level is low for a US feed.
Fat, fiber, calcium are all fine. Phosphorus is good compared to most feeds, both in raw quantity and as a CA : P ratio. 0.8% Lysine is good for adult birds. Your Methionine level is only 0.3%. That's the old recommend for adult layers, its low for everything else (though still common in the industry) at every other life stage. New recommends are higher even for adult layers (0.35, typically, though the research varies).

No objections to the individual ingredients.

Believe it or not, their organic layer feed actually has more methionine - the new 0.35% recommend, but of course too much clcium for long term health for roosters. I didn't see a higher protein organic option from them you could mix in to maintain your organic feed while increasing total protein, to see if that improves the feather eating behaviors. I'd recommend a source of Met as a suppliment, but apart from organic fish meal, I'm not sure what may be available to you.This, I think, will be interesting reading to you. FOr a host of reasons, you can't buy OTC DL-Methionine off the supermarket shelf the same way you can buy L-Lysine. Before you ask, closest you can get is SAM-E, and I've not found research to indicate if its functionally equivalent in chickens or not. My suspicion is "No", but I could be quite wrong.

 

[bnell910]

Thank you to everyone for your input!! Super helpful!!