Molting or parasites

[Aunt Angus]

The feed I had them on was 16% protein. Then I upped it to 20%. Here's a before and after of Jess the Mess. This wasn't caused by my rooster, feather picking, or mites, though it's good to rule those out. It still took a molt to get her back to normal.

 

[khdryden]

 

[khdryden]

The feed I had them on was 16% protein. Then I upped it to 20%. Here's a before and after of Jess the Mess. This wasn't caused by my rooster, feather picking, or mites, though it's good to rule those out. It still took a molt to get her back to normal.

View attachment 3085513

View attachment 3085514

For Jess the mess. What was her issue?. My Rhode island red is starting to look like her

 

[khdryden]

View attachment 3085521

I use these. Which ever is on sell or less expensive or which ever I have a coupon for.

I will stop the Scratch

 

[khdryden]

To determine if you have mites, depluming mites or a feather picker, you need to assess the damaged feathers.

Broken feathers can point to a feather picker. If the skin is red and irritated, coop mites could be your problem. To check for coop mites, go out after dark and wipe a damp white cloth over the roosts. If it shows red smears, you have coop mites.

To determine of you have depluming mites, look carefully at dropped feathers. If they are very thin and threadbare, like a pillow case washed over and over for too many years, your chickens could have depluming mites.

The skin is only red from the exposed area. Like a sunburn. The skin under the feathers is yellow normal chicken skin .

 

[Aunt Angus]

For Jess the mess. What was her issue?. My Rhode island red is starting to look like her

I really think it was the protein. Jess was a high production hybrid, and someone on BYC said they had higher protein needs. I switched to all flock (I have a rooster and ducks, too, so it solved a lot of issues for me). It took several months, but she finally had a good solid molt and regrow all her feathers. She looked horrible for over a year before I switched feed.

If they were mine, I'd check for mites and try to increase the protein in their feed - switch to grower or all flock or mix in starter.