Molting or us she sick?

[glandongirl]

Dominique's or Barred Rocks?

 

[Chris09]

What are you feeding your birds?
What type of chicken feed and what treats, also how much of each?

It looks to me that your birds have a deficiency.

 

[glandongirl]

I am giving them the chicken feed recommended at the feed store. Mash with cracked corn. I also give them some greens. They do seem to like the wild bird seed on the ground. Is that hurting them? They only forage an hour each day.

 

[glandongirl]

Young birds do go through stages of feather development where they shed and replace feathers, not a true, heavy molt but they do replace juvenile feathers.  In that picture you can see all the new feathers that have come in and are still partly covered by the kertin sheath.  I would suspect that is all that is going on here.

 

[glandongirl]

What is the keratin sheath? Now I looked at the biggest pulley and it appears she has list some feathers on the back too.

 

[glandongirl]

I meant that pullet has lost some too.

 

[BantamLover21]

Looks like she's molting to me. To make sure it isn't anything else, though, I'd dust her for mite/lice and do a thorough examination for any other abnormalities.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Looks like she's molting to me. To make sure it isn't anything else, though, I'd dust her for mite/lice and do a thorough examination for any other abnormalities.

X2

 

[Chris09]

With the feathers curling I would say that she has a amino acid deficiency, most likely methionine.
If it was me I would dust them all with a good poultry dust and get them on a higher protein feed. Maybe one at least 18% protein.

 

[glandongirl]

Thanks for advice. I will get a poultry dust at the feed store?