Please help a Newbie: could it be mites?

[happymorrows]

I have a three week BO old chick who is "preening" herself a lot. This behavior won her tailfeathers the attention of the other 13 chicks and I ended up separating her because her butt was being pecked at and was bloody. It has improved overnight while she was alone, but she still messes with it and a few other places. She does not appear to be damaging herself with this preening, it's just when her buddies jump in that she starts to lose feathers. I have tried to read up about mites, but I can't see any on her feathers or around her vent or anything. Should I be able to see them if they were there? I let her preen herself while she sat on me and some dry skin looking stuff flaked off on to my shirt. It looked kind of like flakes of the stuff that is around the base of their feathers. I am just concerned that I am missing something big here that needs to be dealt with. Thanks for any advice! Oh, she is happy and eating and healthy other than that. I have had one other case of feather pecking with another BO, but hers resolved as soon as I kept her apart long enough for the bad spot to scab over and quit bleeding, but she didn't peck at herself.

 

[MissPrissy]

Preening is natural. I doubt you have a mite issue. Some preen more than others. The flaking is from the fluff and feather growth - it is like a thin sheath as the feathering exits the skin. It has to slough off.

Chickens are raptors. The scent of bloody attracts them. Once one pecks hard enough to break the skin they all dive in. They are cannibals and will eat another chicken alive one peck at a time. Keep the other chick separate until it heals. Use a red light in the brooders to deter from the pecking behavior. You can put a dab of blukote on the broken area to help seal and heal.

This is the life of chickens. Be prepared. They won't ever change.

 

[happymorrows]

Thanks so much for your reply. That was along my thought process, but I am a nurse so I always think if the worst thing first! I think she is just really vain

. I took her out with the others this morning for some social time, and they seemed to leave her feathers alone for the most part (although she still preens twice as much as the others). I do have a red light in there for them, and I have been giving them extra protein since the first pecking incident just in case. I will try a full reinstatement to the flock tomorrow morning provided her tail feathers continue to improve.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

She's just growing in new feathers. They need to preen, to remove the outer covering from the growing pin feather, so it can unfurl. The removed covering is the flaky stuff that looks like dandruff. They are constantly growing new feathers, as they grow larger. After they are adults, they'll have seasonal molts, where they lose their old feathers and grow new ones. Molting can be kind of an itchy business sometimes, too.