Frizzle Frazzle, Sizzle Sazzle Thread...

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Jane grew in almost all of her feathers!

 

[carolsmith7878]

Raven now, at 9 months. She’s been laying for about a month now. As you can see, her feathers are extremely brittle and most are broken. She’s bare in many places. We live in Central FL and the coop is heated, but when it gets too cold she is brought inside as she has no protection AT ALL from the cold.

We got Raven from a breeder who wasn’t careful, but she is a result of frizzle breeding to frizzle. She is a frazzle, and she requires special care. She’s also tiny and gets picked on a lot. She’s also super sweet and we love her.

 

[FlyWheel]

Question: Doze a frizzled sazzle sizzle when it's frazzled?

 

[carolsmith7878]

Raven will be one year-old at the end of May. I hope these posts help someone in the future that has a frazzled bird. You can see in the pictures that she lost basically all her feathers, and the rest were broken. The little spots you see growing in now are new feathers that started 2 days ago. As she lost all her feathers she got sick, developed some neurological issues (like stumbling and having trouble balancing to eat, etc...), and stopped eating. We had to crop feed her with high-protein baby bird feed, rooster booster vitamins, and antibiotics (as we weren’t sure she didn’t also have a serious infection). Her preen gland was also swollen and irritated, which required soaking and massaging (yeah, we did that for our chicken. Lol). This went on for over a week.

We aren’t sure if it was the strain on her body from the sudden loss of all her feathers and the need for specialized nutrition that she wasn’t getting enough of, or if she got overheated (we live in FL), or if she was stressed from getting picked on by our dominant bird, or an infection, or a combo of one or more of these issues. However, to anyone who has a frazzle, they will need special care. Raven comes inside if it is below 70 degrees. She will not be able to live with the other birds any more due to being small and constantly harassed while molting (she has supervised outings with the other birds during the day). She can’t be out in the sun for long periods when molting, either. She requires high protein and rooster booster vitamins during molts. We also had to bathe her and put coconut oil and aloe on her poor, dried out skin and broken feather follicles as it was very uncomfortable for her.

She is doing better and pulling through, but we know now how delicate these birds are during a molt. If not for the crop feeding during the period she wasn’t eating, she wouldn’t have pulled through. In the future when she begins molting, we will begin a high protein, vitamin rich diet (think veggies and mealworms or dried larvae), supplemented with water soluble vitamins.

If you have a frazzle and ever want to PM me with questions, feel free to ask me and I will help how I can. I hope that this information helps others (and their cute, naked birdies) in a similar situation.

 

[carolsmith7878]

This is Raven now. She has much fewer neurological issues, but still has some minor balance problems and will not jump down from anything more than 2-4” high. She will likely never have full feathers again as they break off as soon as they grow out.

She has adjusted quite well to living inside with our cats and dogs, and still lays a tiny egg almost every day in her cage (which is open 24/7). She has her outdoor supervised outings once or twice a day while we garden, but otherwise is an indoor bird now. We re-homed our other birds, and Raven remains as our one pet chicken.

I often wake up with her beside the bed making her cute purring noises for treats or attention. Who knew a naked chicken could be so adorable?

 

[carolsmith7878]

So here is Raven at about 1 1/2 years-old. She lives inside in our master bathroom. She has a cat bed that we put those cheap $2 blankets from Walmart on. We fold them to fit, the poo doesn’t really stick to them, so we can just shake it into the toilet and flush. We have several and wash then every few days. This is where she sleeps at night and naps during the day. She loves it! We have a skylight for her to get natural sunlight, and she will go to the front door and squawk when she wants to go outside for a (monitored) outing. She prefers to be inside most of the time.

The second pic is of her pen (a rabbit cage purchased from Petco and modified for a chicken). I used a drill bit to make holes in the plastic for her feeders and the nest box is a rabbit litter box. The material in the bottom is pdz, and can be scooped like a litterbox with a reptile scooper (which can also be purchased at Petco). I placed small pavers as steps for her, because Raven still has trouble jumping up and down, and still stumbles occasionally.

I hope this helps someone in the future that might have a frazzle or other indoor chicken as a pet. The pdz can be dusty (we have an air purifier and large fan in the bathroom), and we do clean up her poops as she wanders, but she is otherwise just like every other house-pet we own... cute and spoiled!

 

[Ltilden]

@carolsmith7878 Thank you so much for sharing your experience with your frazzle chick! I am so impressed with the level of care you provide for her, it is really inspiring. I have two little white Cochin girls I am suspecting might be frazzled, and I’ve been looking everywhere for info on how to help them so I’m very appreciative I’ve found your post. I’ll attach pics of my two girls, Ducky and Daffy who are 7 months old now...they aren’t too naked at the moment but they have quite a few bald spots (mostly on their necks) and their feathers seem to be quite brittle. I’d love to be able to keep in touch with you for tips on how to keep my girls healthy as they grow.