Peeps with Feather Loss

[cheeps]

Hi, I am a chicken newbie (in adulthood anyway!) I have 6 RIR peeps that are a 8-9 days old now, not exactly sure. They are in a brooder in my garage and are on growing mash and chick grit. A few of my chicks have featherless spots, usually just one spot per bird, no bigger than a quarter in size. They're in different spots on the chicks, but I think on a few they're on the crop. Any ideas on this? I'm sorry if this is a repeat post, I couldn't find anything similar.

My peeps did get into a bit of veg oil, so could the feathers just be stuck together? My fuzzy butts are bald butts!

 

[cheeps]

Any Ideas?

 

[keljonma]

I can't think of anything... so here is my suggestion.

Get a chair and a notebook. Sit with them for an hour or three. See how they are behaving. They should be eating, drinking, pooping, peeping, sleeping and preening.

Try to observe each bird individually instead of the entire flock. Make notes about each bird. When you are done observing, you should know if each bird is behaving normally for a young chicklette. You should also be also to observe if they seem bothered by bugs and what their droppings look like.

Perhaps you could take some pics and post them. Pics are always helpful. Let us know what you discover. You may find out they are just fine. And you got to know a little bit more about your new kids.

 

[keljonma]

cheeps, how are your chicklettes doing?

 

[cheeps]

I think they're doing better, I'm thinking the veggie oil they got into just matted everything together and made it look worse. Also, I read that white light sometimes makes them pluck each other's feathers out, so I changed lights too. Thank you so much for asking!

 

[hinkjc]

Hi cheeps - just wanted to add that they should really still be on chick starter at only 8-9 days old. They typically keep them on that for 6 weeks, then switch to grower. Altho, I keep mine on chick starter until they reach point of lay. I am not sure if the feed would affect the plumage growth, since I don't know what grower contains (as far as proteins).

Jody