I think I found a miracle cure for feather picking

[azygous]

I've been feeding Forco to my 19 year-old cat who's been in renal failure for two years. I figure he can use all the help he can get. It was my friends raving about Forco curing their dogs of poop eating that encouraged me to try it on my feather pickers.

My flock is entering fall molt and I've noticed a few of them have reverted to feather picking. A friend pointed out that molting is very stressful so it has probably triggered this relapse.

 

[azygous]

New development : My champion feather picker, my EE Flo, has been ramping up her evil quest of late. Today I caught her with her beak full of feathers, having gone after Joycie the Buff Brahma, who had just recently grown feathers on her bald neck.

This was after I trimmed Flo's beak, thinking to take the edge off her compulsion. So I finally broke down and installed pinless peepers on her again.

I think she's stressed because she's going into molt, and it's triggering her feather fixation.

I'll keep feeding the Forco and see what happens after everyone gets finished molting.

 

[Debbz]

New development : My champion feather picker, my EE Flo, has been ramping up her evil quest of late.....
I'll keep feeding the Forco and see what happens after everyone gets finished molting.

Have you changed anything else lately, new feed or new birds? To get a better idea of what's going on, yes, you're probably right to continue on the Forco through seasonal changes to see what happens. Are you still writing things down? In a year or so you won't be able to remember these observations, dates and doses unless you've recorded them.

 

[Debbz]

Another thought azygous - I've been hunting through formal studies of feather pecking in chickens and found an interesting result of one study (though long and boring to read right through).

It had two lots of birds, the first had an indoor and outdoor undercover area with no green feed with the birds able to go in and out as they pleased. They had lots of plant protein included in their feed. The second lot of chickens had an indoor area and free access to a green pasture outdoor area.

The chickens that had no access to green forage areas (even though their feed was good and they could dust-bath etc) were pecking much more and more aggressively.

The conclusion of the study was that the absence of animal protein in the diet may be the cause of increased feather pecking. So not all proteins are the same. The green pasture birds that pecked much less had access to bugs and animal protein. The peckers had plenty of plant protein/oil seeds but they still pecked aggressively.

I wonder if your birds might be getting fewer bugs and things as you come into winter? We have spring here, more bugs about and my hens have almost stopped their tail nibbling. I'm breeding up some meal worms to help them through next winter in 6 months time. All guesswork of course, but who knows?

 

[hillbillyfarmer]

Here is what I use when feather picking gets out of control and have had great results from it. Avia Charge 2000. I also found that free ranging greatly reduces feather picking. Just my experience with a problem that I personally don't think you can totally eliminate,but you can reduce it. I'm going to subscribe to this thread to keep up to date. Very interesting info.

 

[azygous]

Excellent observations, Debbz. Very informative.

My flock has been under cover all summer due to my problem with paranoia over predators. They have pretty much the same diet year-round, despite our heavy winters because I store carrots and squash and feed it to them fresh all winter along with their layer mash, supplemented with a high protein grower feed. AND mealworms. I'm an avid meal worm cultivator, enjoying breeding them more than I ever imagined. (I get a real high out of seeing the egg tray suddenly show movement in the wheat bran.) In summer, they get lots of leafy green veggies and tomatoes.

So, the only real change is that they're molting. Since molting would cause a protein drain, I attribute the uptick in Flo's feather picking to that. Other than one other hen going specifically after the same victim that Flo has, none of the rest of the flock is reverting to feather picking.

Thanks for reminding me to write it down.

 

[azygous]

Hillbilly - can you please tell us what Avia Charge 2000 is?

 

[hillbillyfarmer]

Its an all natural trace mineral supplement. Contains 70+ naturally chelated minerals, 23 vitamins & antioxidants, 22 essential amino acids, enzymes and body & blood building nutrients. You add it to their water. I purchase mine from Murray McMurray but other hatcheries sell it as well.

 

[Debbz]

.... I also found that free ranging greatly reduces feather picking. Just my experience with a problem that I personally don't think you can totally eliminate,but you can reduce it...

hillbillyfarmer, you've reminded me of another study I found recently. Commercial chickens have their beaks cut down to reduce injury from pecking, and now I know why.

The study put full-beaked chickens into little commercial egg laying cages from age 17 - 24 weeks, and full-beaked chickens into a 'barnlaid egg' shed where they ran free but were confined indoors in fairly crowded conditions. Normally, birds in these situations have their beaks cut and even then 6% die from pecking injuries. After the 7 week study, which was discontinued because of the high number of deaths, 34% of the caged chickens had been killed, and 28% of the barn chickens had been pecked to death. (Many chickens actually died, but when a chicken was found so badly injured that it was obviously going to die or be killed, it was removed and counted as dead.)

So I think you're right about all this pecking being part of chicken growing and not completely avoidable. The more unnatural the situation the higher the chance of harm from pecking being a problem, especially with full-beaked birds.

 

[azygous]

It's been nearly five months that my flock has been on the Forco supplement to try to combat feather picking, and I wanted to give an update and see how others are doing with Forco with their flocks.

In a nutshell, I believe the Forco is working splendidly. With the exception of two relapses, my main picker Flo appears to have been cured. The two relapses occurred when she went into molt and when I was building the new pen, both of which contributed a great deal of stress. I reinstalled pinless peepers on Flo, and they came back off a month ago, and there's been no resumption in picking.

I had one other hen relapse during that time. She was shaving the feathers off the rooster's neck. She wore peepers during this stressful period, too, and they've since come off, and she hasn't resumed picking.

And the side-effect of more solid poops during the night has continued.

I'm giving them an ounce and a half of Forco for fifteen chickens each morning, sprinkled over their feed in the feeder trays. They all still love the taste and all eat it.

In conclusion, I'm still sold on it as a solution for feather picking.