bluebird-azurite
Hatching
- Jan 18, 2023
- 2
- 1
- 9
Howdy,
I have a pet hen who has been plucking out a ton of feathers and I would like to know if this is something I should be concerned about or if I'm just being a worry wort. I recently had to take her with me to go see family for Easter so I'm suspecting that it might be the stress from the drive/new environment that's making her do it. I'm a little on the fence about that theory though because I don't really have a lot of land so I take her to my local park pretty much everyday so she can free range all she wants and she's never really gotten stressed out from the drive.
She's about a year and a half, is very used to being taken new places, and has never pulled out so many of her own feathers before which is why I'm a little concerned. She's not eating the feathers so I know it's not a diet deficiency and aside from the plucking, she's acting like her normal self.
I just want to make sure that this isn't a big issue, I tend to get a little paranoid when it comes to the health of my animals (I thought my dog had a heart defect once because he coughed like twice). She is plucking out her downy feathers from pretty much every area of her body so I don't think it's broodiness plus she hasn't been broody recently or laid any eggs at all for that matter.
If this is a problem, how can I get her to stop doing it? I know downy feathers are important for thermoregulation and I don't want her plucking herself bald.
I have a pet hen who has been plucking out a ton of feathers and I would like to know if this is something I should be concerned about or if I'm just being a worry wort. I recently had to take her with me to go see family for Easter so I'm suspecting that it might be the stress from the drive/new environment that's making her do it. I'm a little on the fence about that theory though because I don't really have a lot of land so I take her to my local park pretty much everyday so she can free range all she wants and she's never really gotten stressed out from the drive.
She's about a year and a half, is very used to being taken new places, and has never pulled out so many of her own feathers before which is why I'm a little concerned. She's not eating the feathers so I know it's not a diet deficiency and aside from the plucking, she's acting like her normal self.
I just want to make sure that this isn't a big issue, I tend to get a little paranoid when it comes to the health of my animals (I thought my dog had a heart defect once because he coughed like twice). She is plucking out her downy feathers from pretty much every area of her body so I don't think it's broodiness plus she hasn't been broody recently or laid any eggs at all for that matter.
If this is a problem, how can I get her to stop doing it? I know downy feathers are important for thermoregulation and I don't want her plucking herself bald.