Why are my females scalping each other?

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ButtonNomies said:
I know males can scalp females when mating with them and I know trauma/hormone issues with females can sometimes change their behaviour and colour to more male behaviour ... they wouldn't be fertile but it may explain the sudden scalping? Can u give them all a thorough checkout to make sure this hasn't happened? It's more common than we think especially as females age out and go thru drastic hormone changes.

I wouldve thought it was just pecking order if it hadn't been such a sudden change in behaviour within the group. A sudden change almost always means something drastic has happened within the group for this behaviour to appear xx
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Totally re the male scalping! Bit confused by the female to male behaviour shift, what should I be looking out for? There's also a potential for them to be ageing out as I bought them as adults and the breeder kept them mixed so he wasn't sure about age when I got them - although it's just super weird that they've all stopped laying at the same time...

I did watch a youtube video where a breeder said that at the onset of Spring (which it is here where I am) hormonal shifts in females can cause them to become aggressive, and scalping is common as they reassert the pecking order, but that it should settle quickly. This to me lines up pretty well with the seasonal shift so I'm kind of hoping that's it!
 
HostileMatron said:
What does it look like to you?
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Ditto that question! Any ideas as to what it might be @Kiki?

It seems to be very targeted to the head, they're not looking scruffy or like they're moulting any of their other feathers. My white lady has been particularly affected, and generally she's at the bottom of the pecking order which makes sense to me that she'd then be suffering the most aggression now.

If only they'd just tell me!
 
Jocko1 said:
You need to separate them a bit they will end up drawing blood, I needed to take the male out and then after separating females that were badly pecked and treating them I reintroduced them to the flock after the male was not in their common place and it stopped.
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I was definitely considering separating them if it got any worse - I only have females so no males causing problems, which would have been much more straightfoward! 😩 I'm keeping an eye on them to see if they start to chill out or escalate so I can step in if needed.
 
QuailTail said:
Ditto that question! Any ideas as to what it might be @Kiki?

It seems to be very targeted to the head, they're not looking scruffy or like they're moulting any of their other feathers. My white lady has been particularly affected, and generally she's at the bottom of the pecking order which makes sense to me that she'd then be suffering the most aggression now.

If only they'd just tell me!
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What do you feed?
Is this rice?
Screenshot_20220901-065258.png
 
HostileMatron said:
Oh my ever lovin' goodness!! That's horrible. I now understand why you said no to scalping. Unless it's just the beginning and will end up at this point

Do you have any idea what is going on with these birds?
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No, I do not know.
The first thing I would look at is what they are eating to make sure it's a balanced diet with enough protein and calcium.
 

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