Picking off feathers and eating them

[ForFlocksSake]

This morning I was watching my RIR take a dust bath and my barred rock walked up to her and started pecking her backside. She pulled off a feather and ate it then went back for more. I intervened and grabbed the RIR to take a closer look. She’s missing feathers in one area (see photo). I read feather eating could be protein deficiency but they’re on 20% crumbles and I throw black soldier fly larva and scrambled egg scraps at them multiple times per week. The strangest part is my RIR continued to lay in her dust bath and wasn’t really protesting at all other then one little yelp sound. Both have laid an egg every day this week and last and seem healthy otherwise. The others don’t have any missing feathers. How do I stop this?

 

[thecatumbrella]

I'm dealing with this right now. The feather plucker is in a separate pen until about an hour before bedtime so we can supervise (and she can get in the coop). Since you're in Florida (and I imagine the temps aren't too low), you could probably attempt a week or longer full separation to try and break the habit. For us, we decided to rehome the plucker to someone with a better setup.

Are your chickens in a pen? Or free-ranging?

EDIT: You could also check out my post for the advice I got:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/resource-guarding-at-pol-wwyd.1605938/

 

[ForFlocksSake]

I'm dealing with this right now. The feather plucker is in a separate pen until about an hour before bedtime so we can supervise (and she can get in the coop). Since you're in Florida (and I imagine the temps aren't too low), you could probably attempt a week or longer full separation to try and break the habit. For us, we decided to rehome the plucker to someone with a better setup.

Are your chickens in a pen? Or free-ranging?

EDIT: You could also check out my post for the advice I got:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/resource-guarding-at-pol-wwyd.1605938/

Thanks! It’s actually cold here in north Florida. Daytime is 60s but nights have been getting in the high 30s/low 40s. I’ll check out your post.

Yes they’re in a pen and do not get to free range.

 

[thecatumbrella]

Yes they’re in a pen and do not get to free range.

Same here, and that's probably the problem for both of us. They get bored when they can't forage, and feathers are a high protein snack.

Do you have breeds other than RIRs and Barred Rocks? Because both of those will handle low temps like a champ. It's been 15F before noon the last couple days, and mine don't bat an eye so long as I keep the wind off them.

 

[ForFlocksSake]

Same here, and that's probably the problem for both of us. They get bored when they can't forage, and feathers are a high protein snack.

Do you have breeds other than RIRs and Barred Rocks? Because both of those will handle low temps like a champ. It's been 15F before noon the last couple days, and mine don't bat an eye so long as I keep the wind off them.

Oh yeah all my breeds are cold and heat hardy. I just can’t let them free range where I live. The neighborhood won’t allow it and there are Too many birds of prey.

 

[thecatumbrella]

I hear you. We've been trying to make their run as interesting as possible, and we'll attempt to add a supervised out-of-the-run forage area, but if I keep getting behavioral problems I'll have to readjust.

I hope you're able to nip the plucking in the bud. I'm actually shocked the RIR is not the perpetrator, since both of my RI mixes turned out to be feather pickers (and I guess that's not uncommon for the breed?).

 

[Saaniya]

This morning I was watching my RIR take a dust bath and my barred rock walked up to her and started pecking her backside. She pulled off a feather and ate it then went back for more. I intervened and grabbed the RIR to take a closer look. She’s missing feathers in one area (see photo). I read feather eating could be protein deficiency but they’re on 20% crumbles and I throw black soldier fly larva and scrambled egg scraps at them multiple times per week. The strangest part is my RIR continued to lay in her dust bath and wasn’t really protesting at all other then one little yelp sound. Both have laid an egg every day this week and last and seem healthy otherwise. The others don’t have any missing feathers. How do I stop this?View attachment 3700199

Deficiency of Vitamin A & Protein cause this

kindly get a multivitamin supplement that contains all the chain along with argenine it will help alone vitamin A is pretty heavy so along with other vitamins it’s tolerable