Why are my geese eating my turkeys' tail feathers???

[hatchaholic]

Our embden geese keep eating our turkey tailfeathers. The turkeys look so pitiful. They try to puff up, but have nothing to show off!!

The geese slacked off for a while, but have become relentless again. Any ideas as to what we can do to get them to stop?

 

[Beekissed]

Are they penned or free range? You may need to separate them? Some say they require more protein in their diet if they are eating feathers. I've read on here that putting salt in their water may curb this.

This must be what is happening on my sis's farm, where they have every kind of poultry known to man and enough feathers to only cover one bird! All the feathers picked away....looks awful!

 

[silkiechicken]

Upping protein in their feed, supplementing with some black oil sun flower seeds for their methionine, and coating feathers with "hot pick" or some other anti pick lotion would probably be good if you can't separate them.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
ditto....

 

[hatchaholic]

We pen the turkeys and chickens up in the coop at night. It's about a 16'x16' coop. We leave the geese out in the yard. During the day, they all are let out in the yard together. We've got about 1/4 acre fenced in for them.

Thanks for all of the helpful information. We still have so much to learn, and everyone here is always so helpful.

I was wondering if it were a protein issue. The black sunflower seeds would be okay for the chickens too, right?

I hadn't heard of anti-pick lotion before. DH thought about putting hot sauce on the wings. Wonder if that works the same????

 

[Newyorkfarmgirl]

I have a goose and some chickens. The friend who gave me the goose told me to make a paste out of cayene pepper and water and cover the tail feathers of the chickens with it to keep the goose from pulling and eating their feathers. So far this has been working out.