molting

[Betsyann]

We have 12 rhode island reds and live in new england They are a year old and are molting now. everything i have read says that they molt in the fall to winter but mine have a lot of bare bottoms.... some have missing tops. Is this common to molt in March and affect only the bottoms?

 

[Judy]

Really, they molt when they are ready, but molting starts at the head and neck and works its way down. I'm afraid what you have is feather picking, usually related to too little space and/or too little protein. Also, have you checked or treated for lice/mites? Have you wormed them?

 

[centrarchid]

Molting in adults is seasonal with most occuring during fall. In some flighted breeds turnover of flight (wing) feathers begin about June and is complete by December. Molting this time of year is indicative of something wrong. Show pictures of birds and where they are housed. What are you feeding them? Look at them closely for evidence of little white things crawling on skin and base of body feathers.

 

[Aaronn94]

Mine are also in molting now and they have bare bottoms etc its all completely normal they will just stop laying until their new feathers are threw