My rooster's feathers are turning white

[Basil G]

Let me start off I didn't know where to put this, so it is here
One of my roosters (I think he turned 4 years this February)is turning white in spots. He has just finished his molt and his new feathers have lots of white.

I'm pretty positive he's a NHR BO mix


One of his tail feathers is white at the base

I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen with age or some thing else.

He has just random half white feathers, not the whole feather the part closer to the body is white

Exception to his wing feathers, they are white with black at the tip. Also on his wings all this black came in with this new molt that added all this white also. Before this last molt he had a spot or two of black, now it is whole feathers that are black.
Like I said before I don't know if it's an age thing (the hens I got with him didn't do this) or if it is a genetic thing.

 

[CMV]

• Injury
• Dietary deficiencies during feather growth that interrupt the melanin deposition into the growing feather
• Disease (such as circulatory problems during feather development
• Progressive albinism is possible in aging birds

I pulled the above reference from a paper on AvianWeb. I normally reference the whole page, but this one was not really appropriate to the situation at hand. These are all reasons for progressive leucism in birds.

 

[Basil G]

The progressive leucism makes sense
Then my other question would be why all this black with the white?

 

[CMV]

Here's some light reading for you:

http://www.birdchannel.com/media/bi...onditions/bird-feather-color-changes.aspx.pdf

 

[crazyhenlover]

My hens get that sometimes. Always goes away though. I think your rooster will be alright, and back to normal in a few weeks.

 

[AsNeeded]

Let me start off I didn't know where to put this, so it is here
One of my roosters (I think he turned 4 years this February)is turning white in spots. He has just finished his molt and his new feathers have lots of white.

I'm pretty positive he's a NHR BO mix


One of his tail feathers is white at the base

I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen with age or some thing else.

He has just random half white feathers, not the whole feather the part closer to the body is white

Exception to his wing feathers, they are white with black at the tip. Also on his wings all this black came in with this new molt that added all this white also. Before this last molt he had a spot or two of black, now it is whole feathers that are black.
Like I said before I don't know if it's an age thing (the hens I got with him didn't do this) or if it is a genetic thing.

Not sure what is going on with our rooster. But, he suddenly has 2 total very white tail feathers that were not there just a few days ago. He's very aggressive so we keep our distance from him and have had to defend ourselves from him at times. But, he's great for protecting our 16 hens so we just deal with it. Just want to make sure he's ok and not sick or something although he hasn't really changed his behavior.

 

[Atchurch]

My RIR boy is 10 months old and for the first time, today, he has some really white spots on his tail feathers! I came here to find out what it is but not finding anything definitive. Somebody, please help! We have 8 girls, the same age, and they don't have that.

 

[3SiameseCats]

My almost 2yr RIR rooster is growing in a white tail feather. Wasn’t worried but just was curious why he might have it. Thinking it’s probably him getting older.

 

[Atchurch]

Mine was only around 6 months old when his started turning white. Didn't have I'll effects, though.