If rooster doesn't dust bathe....

[katelk]

Out of my whole flock that includes multiple roosters, I have ONE who I literally have never (not once!) seen dust bathe.
This dude is also the only bird that is constantly showing me mites and nasty little creepys in his feathers. I am constantly having to dust him with DE, but it seems like a few can always be found in there. It is not ever an "infestation" more like just a few. They are easy to see because he is white.
Question is, can this lazy guy infest everyone else even though they all dust bathe?
I am wondering how worried I need to be about keeping every last bug out of his feathers. He is no help to himself whatsoever, although he LOVES it when I dust him with DE. I almost feel used... Lol

 

[smedly9921]

For the most part roosters do not dust bath. You have to do it to them. Every once an a while they will do it but if mine have mites I have to do it myself. Its just how it is from my experience. Stupid roosters.

 

[katelk]

Curses. I have seen the other Roos doing it a couple of times. I was hoping they did it more often and I just didn't see. Troublemakers.

 

[enola]

You need to use poultry dust on ALL of your chickens. And then repeat again in 10 days. Chickens willingly share lice eith each other. So they are just passing them around and around.

 

[katelk]

You need to use poultry dust on ALL of your chickens. And then repeat again in 10 days. Chickens willingly share lice eith each other. So they are just passing them around and around.

I never find any on any other bird and his are really very minor. Could this be more serious than I think? I mean, looking at images online of mites and lice on chickens look nothing like what I see. Those pics look horrible.

 

[centrarchid]

All my rooster dust bath daily when soil moisture appropriate. As long as my birds can routinely dust bath mites are not an issue although they are likely not wiped out. The non-bather is a reservoir but balance of flock if not already in trouble will do just fine so long as they can do their bathing.

I do not use DE as is does not appear to be effective. In rare instances where I have a coop confined bird with heavy infestation I will employ sevin to bird and coop or sevin and move it to another location where dust bathing can be realized.

 

[Peeps61]

My rooster would dust bathe with his hens when I had him. I have several snap shots of them all doing just that. Not sure why yours doesn't want to, unless he's learned to enjoy your attention!

 

[CrazyTalk]

If the rest of your roosters dust bathe, and this one doesn't - I wouldn't be hatching any chicks from this rooster. Instincts like this very often have genetic components, and you don't want to keep a behavior that promotes pests.