I think I found a miracle cure for feather picking

[galanie]

In truth? Any hen like this is much too much work for me. I'll cry the whole time I do it and not enjoy the meal one bit, but I'll eat one that is this intent to causing the problems this hen has caused. To me, life is too short. But through experimentation, she just might find something that really works!

 

[azygous]

Well, history. At two-weeks old, Flo was perching on the edge of the brooder, and whenever I opened the hatch, she would jump onto my shoulder. She would cuddle under my chin as I browzed the internet, and was content for long stretches of "lap time".

As she grew, she was the only one in the flock, besides the two roosters, who responded to her name. When she was just four-months old, she was starting to pick feathers, and soon thereafter, she was wearing pinless peepers. She didn't see as well as her sharp little brain demanded, so she would hold back her egg until I came into the pen and she would hop onto the perch in front of the flapped pop hole, cawing to me to hold them up so she could go in and lay her egg.

Even now, in her jail, if she is needing to lay an unscheduled egg, she caws to me to take her out and let her into her nest box.

So, you see, this hen is so intelligent, she has me trained so well, she knows I can't kill her.

 

[equius]

Tigertrea In an earlier post I explained there is no certification process for feed in the US. If you ad a medication to the feed the medication has to be approved but not the feed itself. There is a long explanation in one of my earlier posts.

Jim Rea

 

[equius]

Azagous, Actually its a 16% layer ration and the only thing you need to feed. It contains the proper amount of Forco for chickens eating 1/4 pound of the complete layer feed a day.

Jim

 

[azygous]

I'm anxious to introduce the new feed to the girls. I'm sure it's at the post office waiting for me. I don't get USPS delivery to my door like in the city, so I have to wait for them to leave a pickup notice in my rural box, then go down to the post office and pick up the delivery. Snow yesterday has slowed me down a bit, and after I shovel out (an eighth of a mile driveway), I'll be introducing it to the gang tomorrow morning.

Having the Forco in the feed is going to make this experiment a little closer to being clinical.

 

[azygous]

The roasted soy bean meal plus cracked corn plus Forco is here, and I tried it out on my two troublemakers. They loved it! Flo, especially, couldn't seem to get enough. She ate it like she hadn't had a thing to eat all day.

I set up another feeder outside the jail so Geobett could try it. She also loved it, and ate quite a bit before getting distracted by other hens coming up to sample the new ration. Of course, Penrod the roo announced there was something new and good, as if he was totally responsible for it appearing. He thought it was pretty good, too.

Thanks, Jim!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Hi guys!

I just wanted to share something I discovered yesterday. In my flock of Delawares (meat birds) I had a hen who I witnessed going around and pulling feathers from whomever she saw. In the last couple weeks, I've noticed that my Delawares, which used to be beautiful, are suddenly NOT. Many of them are picked. I saw this girl going at it and I grabbed her up. Processed her and found that her liver was an odd color. Usually, when I process birds, their livers are a nice dark healthy red color. This girl's liver was a color somewhere between orange and yellow with a little bit of "tan" thrown in. Her crop and her gizzard were both full of feathers.

So I got to thinking about faulty liver function perhaps being the cause. I looked up foods good for keeping a healthy liver and the following link was an interesting read... very short too. Only two items mentioned and I believe both of these items would be really easy to incorporate into our birds' diets. I plan on getting some beet pulp next time I go get feed and I have some dandelion seeds I plan on sprouting to add to their diets. I also intend to grow both of these once the weather warms up.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/318402-what-foods-are-good-for-keeping-a-healthy-liver/

 

[aart]

Hi guys!

I just wanted to share something I discovered yesterday. In my flock of Delawares (meat birds) I had a hen who I witnessed going around and pulling feathers from whomever she saw. In the last couple weeks, I've noticed that my Delawares, which used to be beautiful, are suddenly NOT. Many of them are picked. I saw this girl going at it and I grabbed her up. Processed her and found that her liver was an odd color. Usually, when I process birds, their livers are a nice dark healthy red color. This girl's liver was a color somewhere between orange and yellow with a little bit of "tan" thrown in. Her crop and her gizzard were both full of feathers.

So I got to thinking about faulty liver function perhaps being the cause. I looked up foods good for keeping a healthy liver and the following link was an interesting read... very short too. Only two items mentioned and I believe both of these items would be really easy to incorporate into our birds' diets. I plan on getting some beet pulp next time I go get feed and I have some dandelion seeds I plan on sprouting to add to their diets. I also intend to grow both of these once the weather warms up.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/318402-what-foods-are-good-for-keeping-a-healthy-liver/

Interesting. How old was this bird? Did you evaluate her diet for enough protein before examining her liver? I don't mean that to be a snarky question, I'm just really curious, because I really wonder if incorrigable feather pickers have some metabolic flaw such that they can never be weaned form the habit. Maybe they can't 'use' the protien they eat so their systems drive them to eat more of it.

 

[galanie]

In the case of that hen, it sounds to me like Lacy Blues took the right approach. Better to take a problem like that out of the flock than risk having offspring with it. If however you don't breed and just love what you have, then I can see where you might possibly want to keep a special diet around for her.

 

[Lacy Blues]

This bird was 10 months old. She just started doing this within the last week or so as everybody was beautiful up until then. I'm watching the flock when I can to see if anyone else is doing it. Their protein level is fine.

ETA: I didn't open her up to examine her liver. I can't see not using the meat and I was processing her and when I saw her liver's color, I was somewhat shocked. Checked out some information and thought I would share.