Obsessive eye poking

[redinator]

4 week old chick still eye poking.

I have 29 chicks in the brooder. They are 3 and 4 week olds, some bantams and standards. I planned to move them outside today, but it's storming like crazy so I couldn't set up their chick pen.

All the other chicks have stopped the obsessive eye poking after the first week or so, except one. I tried separating it with one or two other chicks (they got obsessively poked); then alone for 20-30 minutes at a time. There are toys in the brooder: mirrors, a xylophone, beaded chains, perches so it isn't boredom. I've tried thumping the chick when it pecked the others, but it doesn't care, it'll peck my hand then go back to pecking the chicks eye. To be clear it isn't a single chick that it's observing over, it's any chick in pecking range.

This is my third batch of chicks and this is the first that I'm actually concerned it'll blind another chick. Aside from the things I've already done I'm thinking I might paint its toenails to give it something else to obsess over, lol. Maybe the other chicks will peck at its toes and get a bit of payback (kidding, sort of).

Any other sage advice? I won't be able to keep as close an eye on the behavior once they're outside, but hopefully just being outside will keep it occupied and the obsession will stop.

 

[thecatumbrella]

I have a d'Uccle pullet that has always been obsessed with tapping on things. Like, A LOT. Not eyeballs, thank goodness, but that doesn't seem too far a stretch. I think they have some sort of visual overstimulation or OCD.

If this were my chick, I'd start by keeping her with the brood, but separated somehow. She needs to break this bad habit. If she can't, I'd rehome her once she's off the heat (with a warning, of course). Her new flock shouldn't tolerate that sort of behavior, and the new environment will be its own mental stimulation.