I think my pullet has depression. Seriously.

Soot the silkie

Songster
5 Years
Sep 19, 2014
374
10
101
Humboldt, California
A few weeks ago, I noticed that the bottom girl in my flock of four birds was getting furiously attacked by her once friend. She immediately stopped laying, and started sitting around dejectedly, staring blankly. She's gotten thinner since then, and not laying eggs. I've found a few feathers around, but she doesn't look like she's molting. Also, she takes out her anger on me, attacking my shins like a rooster. She has always done this because she likes getting treats and attention from me, but now it's different. She doesn't want to eat treats, and when I pick her up she tries to bite me. She's too afraid to go up on the roost with the other hens and sits uncomfortably on the floor, sometimes coming out of the coop with feces on her. I thought I'd wait a few weeks and see if it wore off, but it hasn't and she sadder every day. I know this isn't really serious, but I always worry about how my hens are feeling, mentally and physically. Can I make her feel better somehow?
 
It sounds like your hen is either unwell or about to molt, other members of the flock will often attack anyone acting strangely or sick, and a chicken about to molt will be uncomfortable and act sick. So I think one of these things is going on, chickens to some degree get depressed when a flock member they are close to dies, but I'm not sure they can feel sad because another one attacked them as that's a normal part of flock dynamics.
 
It sounds like your hen is either unwell or about to molt, other members of the flock will often attack anyone acting strangely or sick, and a chicken about to molt will be uncomfortable and act sick. So I think one of these things is going on, chickens to some degree get depressed when a flock member they are close to dies, but I'm not sure they can feel sad because another one attacked them as that's a normal part of flock dynamics.

Ok, she has been losing a few feathers, also, I forgot to mention, one of my birds did die pretty recently, and for a week afterwards this bird ran around looking everywhere and calling for her missing flock mate.
 
Hopefully she feels better soon, if they are old enough to molt than that might be going on, make sure to keep up the protein levels in the ration to help with the molt and to cut down on stress, which it seems she has a lot of at the moment.
 
How old is she?
How big is your coop and run(feet by feet)?

Did you determine what the other bird died from?...this one could be sick too.
 

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