HELP! Moult or Mite?

[nzchookhaven]

Hi, I have a flock of 20 chickens. 3 of these (which I have separated) have feather loss and redness on their bellies, from their chest to in between their legs. One of these chickens has scaly foot mites and is being duly treated with vaseline for this. The other two have shown no signs. All three of these hens have feather loss and redness to varying degrees (as shown in the photos below). It is moulting season here in New Zealand, so I am really unsure. Is this moulting or mites?

 

[zephyricle]

You would see mites if it were. Have you check around their vents, their wings, and under their waddles? I usually wouldn't be worried if one chicken was like that, but then again, you said it was molting season. YI can give them chicken dust just to be sure but I can't say much about lice or mites unless you've seen them.

 

[nzchookhaven]

Thanks for replying. I've checked all over them and haven't found any sign of mites. Just red skin, broken feather stubs and gaps with no feathers. Leaving me to believe that they have plucked their own feathers out. I will continue to keep an eye out for mites just in case. What is chicken dust?

 

[zephyricle]

It's a permethrin dust that's used for killing lice found on chickens. Harmless to the chicken, deadly to the bugs. It's a duper fine dust that cuts them up and kills the eggs they lay. If the feathers are broken it's probably rubbing on the ground, nesting boxes, etc.. are they overweight at all? What do you feed your birds?

 

[nzchookhaven]

I feed them bought chicken mix (it has corn, grains, pellets) and food scraps from the kitchen. They could be slightly overweight, they're big birds. Could they be having an allergy to some in the food? How do you give them the dust?

 

[zephyricle]

So the dust should be applied by rubbing it on their vents, undersides, wings, armpits and necks. You can apply it easir if you have a surface wit holes to lay the chicken on (like wooden palates) so you can hold their legs up and their head can go through the hole for comfort. You want to try avoiding breathing it in so use a mask. I will add though, I'd you don't see the lice, don't worry about it.

What kind of birds are they?
Corn and leftovers like scraps of lettuce etc. Should only be 20-25% of their diet, since it's like ice cream or candy to them, although it can be healthy. You don't want to give them too much or it'll start giving them peoblems.

 

[nzchookhaven]

The three affected chickens are a black australorp, a white australorp, and a brown shaver. Ok I think I might need to cut down on the corn. do you have any idea how much I should be feeding them? They are big hens but they could be over-weight. Getting older now but still laying. Thanks so much for all the advice. As you can probably tell, I've only just recently got my chickens, so thank you.

 

[zephyricle]

Yeah it's no problem!
What do you mean by shaver though? Haven't heard of those.

Id say give maybe a handful to them before bed every day and the scraps shouldn't be TOO often. Once a day is as much as they need.

Australorp are pretty large chickens, but they shouldn't have the feather problems. Usually you see the rubbings like that in meat birds who exceed 5lbs in less than a year, so I'd say they're probably a bit overweight haha.

 

[nzchookhaven]

This is a "brown shaver" - I think it's a common hybrid chicken species. Th photo is taken from the internet but my chicken looks like this. I think they were pretty over-spoilt by the last owner. Do you think I should feed them once a day for a wee bit till they lose weight? We don't feed them scraps every day, just maybe once every three days but they are feed a decent amount every morning and night.

 

[zephyricle]

All you should probably do is let them eat their regular food as much as they want then cut back on the corn for a few weeks until it looks like they're a bit lighter. They should lose the weight a bit faster after it gets warmer out. Once they feel a little lighter you can go ahead and start giving them a handful of corn again each night