My pet chicken aged 18mths has suddenly started to lose all the feathers on her back its now bald!

MallieJane

In the Brooder
Oct 17, 2018
3
6
13
Central London UK
This started happening yesterday. She's slowed down on the egg laying over the past couple of weeks but has been eating and drinking as usual. She (Mrs Tookey) is a happy only chicken and is sat on my sofa right now looking very pleased with herself but rather bald. I cant see any parasites and her skin looks healthy. She has moulted before but it was hardly noticeable. I don't want her to catch a cold when shes outside so im thinking I should try and make her a jacket or something to keep her warm, until her feathers regrow at least. I live in Central London and so its not that cold here. She is a very happy only chicken - I did rescue her and another from a clutch hatched by my grandsons nursery, but sadly a cat (a neighbours one that I had no idea about) got the other one. I tried getting her a friend but she didn't like it at all as it was a little bit bigger than she was.
She is fed on layers pellets with scratch and mealworms as a treat. She also can dig about whenever she likes to look for worms and other creepies.
Is this kind of moult normal or is it something to worry about? It looks horrid but she doesn't seem to care. I read that I should give her extra protein to help her make new feathers , is there anything else I can do that will help her to do this.
Many thanks for reading this!
 
Some birds look terrible during their molt, and it's fine.
Here, layer feeds tend to have 16% protein, which is on the low side for good feather regrowth, and lots of calcium, not needed when eggs aren't being produced. If there's an all flock type feed, with higher protein and lower calcium, she could eat that, with oyster shell separately offered. Cutting the scratch feed (here, very low protein) and adding extra protein could help too.
Then again, she may just do an ugly whole body molt.
Mary
 
This started happening yesterday. She's slowed down on the egg laying over the past couple of weeks but has been eating and drinking as usual. She (Mrs Tookey) is a happy only chicken and is sat on my sofa right now looking very pleased with herself but rather bald. I cant see any parasites and her skin looks healthy. She has moulted before but it was hardly noticeable. I don't want her to catch a cold when shes outside so im thinking I should try and make her a jacket or something to keep her warm, until her feathers regrow at least. I live in Central London and so its not that cold here. She is a very happy only chicken - I did rescue her and another from a clutch hatched by my grandsons nursery, but sadly a cat (a neighbours one that I had no idea about) got the other one. I tried getting her a friend but she didn't like it at all as it was a little bit bigger than she was.
She is fed on layers pellets with scratch and mealworms as a treat. She also can dig about whenever she likes to look for worms and other creepies.
Is this kind of moult normal or is it something to worry about? It looks horrid but she doesn't seem to care. I read that I should give her extra protein to help her make new feathers , is there anything else I can do that will help her to do this.
Many thanks for reading this!
Do you have any photos of Mrs. Tookey?
It does sound like molting.
For extra protein you can give her a bit of egg, meat or fish. Commercial poultry feed that is 18-20% protein like Chick Crumb can also be given instead of the layer feed. Since she's the only chicken you have, a small bag would be sufficient since you don't want feed to get too old before it's used up.
 

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