Hello all. I figure it's time to ask. I'm not considering this an emergency because he's eating and drinking and scratching and crowing and doing rooster things. but...
This rooster is 4 years old (plus some months). He started molting very hard back at the end of July. Feathers were everywhere. He lost his tail. He lost his beard and muff. He lost his leg feathers and half of his wings and most of his saddle and hackle feathers. He was near bald minus a few spots. That process took several weeks. The time from when he began to molt to when he stopped looking worse was about 4 weeks. I was a little bit worried by the severity of his molt but since he had never really had a regular molt before I figured he was just compensating.
Unfortunately it has been two MONTHS of slow feather regrowth. He still doesn't have a tail and most of his leg feathers have not grown in. He also has some bare patches under his wings. As a result, with this cold, windy weather, he is having a hard time. He stays in the coop when it's windy and when he's outside he's huddled up shivering. He pretty much eats constantly, shoveling food in as much as he can. He will try to eat anything and everything and isn't keen on sharing the feeder anymore. He's pooping normally and drinking and even mating. But he's definitely having a hard time with the cold weather and I'm worried about him dealing with the even colder weather we're getting, plus the foot or so of snow we might be getting this weekend (if you live around here and didn't know about that... well... SURPRISE).
By comparison, the other 4 year old rooster also had a hard molt this year but it only took 8 weeks from start to looking normal again (but he's a bantam so maybe it's not a real comparison...)
Is there anything I can do to help him out? I'm worried about how long he's been molting... is it an indicator of an issue that he's been molting this long and mostly getting nowhere?
This rooster is 4 years old (plus some months). He started molting very hard back at the end of July. Feathers were everywhere. He lost his tail. He lost his beard and muff. He lost his leg feathers and half of his wings and most of his saddle and hackle feathers. He was near bald minus a few spots. That process took several weeks. The time from when he began to molt to when he stopped looking worse was about 4 weeks. I was a little bit worried by the severity of his molt but since he had never really had a regular molt before I figured he was just compensating.
Unfortunately it has been two MONTHS of slow feather regrowth. He still doesn't have a tail and most of his leg feathers have not grown in. He also has some bare patches under his wings. As a result, with this cold, windy weather, he is having a hard time. He stays in the coop when it's windy and when he's outside he's huddled up shivering. He pretty much eats constantly, shoveling food in as much as he can. He will try to eat anything and everything and isn't keen on sharing the feeder anymore. He's pooping normally and drinking and even mating. But he's definitely having a hard time with the cold weather and I'm worried about him dealing with the even colder weather we're getting, plus the foot or so of snow we might be getting this weekend (if you live around here and didn't know about that... well... SURPRISE).
By comparison, the other 4 year old rooster also had a hard molt this year but it only took 8 weeks from start to looking normal again (but he's a bantam so maybe it's not a real comparison...)
Is there anything I can do to help him out? I'm worried about how long he's been molting... is it an indicator of an issue that he's been molting this long and mostly getting nowhere?