Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[beach chick]

someone, but I'm not sure who, is moulting dramatically - feathers EVERYWHERE! but when I look at the girls they look pretty normal. judging by the feather colour its Paris or Chardonnay (who are coming up for 2 yrs old) but all 8 of them look very well feathered up.

 

I have thought Paris was moulting for the last couple of months, because altho not losing many feathers I could see lovely new dark ones coming through, making her look much 'bluer' (she seemed to have gone rather more a beigebell than a bluebell).

 

so here goes with the questions:

- is there a pattern to moulting, eg lose a few round the eyes and ears first, start regrowing those and then shed the fluff?

- does it all fall out, or do they retain some feathers?

- is it sudden or gradual?

- do I need to do something to keep her warmer in this weather?

- does age come into it?

- I know about tuna/cat food etc; anything else?

- why choose November for heavens sake?!

[Daphne]

well the answers I know are:

 

a) they can have a partial moult (often a neck moult) or a full moult. But even a full moult doesn't mean they'll lose every single feather - bit hard to tell but praps 60-75%? Not sure about a pattern as such but on ours its often neck/small miscellaneous feathers, back feathers followed by long wing feathers (sure they have a proper name) and lastly tail feathers/vent fluff. About half way through you then notice they have lost some breast feather/undercarriage fluff so they have a go-faster stripe all around!

b) often there's bits of feather/fluff shedding going on for a week or so and then if its a full moult a couple of days of feather/fluff avalanche then a few more odd days. You almost wish (but not quite) you slept in the eglu on the warm fluff.

c) I think they need to be around 12 months to moult. Certainly most birds around the 6 month mark now won't moult.

d) I do keep a bit of an extra eye on them getting damp when they moult, but I don't feed any extra tuna or the like. Just the occasional tonic and they get more wheat in winter. No idea if tonic makes any difference just makes me feel better.

e) November - no idea! Actually last year ours seem to go broody/moult at the back end of summer. But this year no summer, no brooding and no moulting till October. Which meant MORE EGGS hurrah

HTH

[beach chick]

I dont think there's anything that would make me want to sleep in the eglu!!!

thanks Daphne, I will now go and inspect for 'gofaster stripes' at every opportunity...

[beach chick]

well, its definitely Chardonnay. she now has NO tail, NO bottom feathers, and every time she moves something else falls off!! bless her, she does look a sight. but why on earth do it in November???

[Daphne]

and last night it dipped below freezing here for the first time in ages....poor girl, lets hope her feathery housemates keep her warm!

[abwsco]

We've got Barney moulting here and like Chardonnay she's no tail, partially bald bottom, balding head and shrunken comb. She's also wandering around feeling really sorry for herself and has lost her position on the perch

 

Like you say, WHY in November??

[eggypeggy]

My Peggy has started to moult this week too.. Feels a bit late but hay ho. I've just started putting poultry spice back in there food.. I might pop and get a small bag of growers mash as the guy at Thornes said it helps bulk them up during the moult.. and all the chooks can go on it for a few weeks. Seeing as two of my chooks don't lay at all at the moment and now peggy is moulting that's a third!

 

Glad Gregory my skyline is a little laying star!

 

I only noticed peggy was laying 'cause the poo tray was full of feathers.. and then I watched her walking around and they were just dropping off her. She's looking a bit scruffy, but there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it.

[TAJ]

When I get a chance I will post the info I have in one of my chicken books that tells you the order of moulting - however I am not sure they all follow these guidelines!

 

Tracy

[beach chick]

that would be great Tracy - its a bit disconcerting if you havent seen it before!! my 'old' 2 have only ever done partial moults til now, just a bit of facial fluff etc, and Paris the Bluebell seems to be doing it very discreetly, I can only really tell because of the lovely new dark feathers coming through.

like someone else said, Char seems to have lost her place in the pecking order too.

I gave them some cat food today for the extra protein, you've never seen anything disappear so fast!!

[MadMitch]

Isolde my Ixworth has just started to moult and is dropping loads of feathers daily. She is the only one moulting out of all of mine and is only 9 months old.

Is this normal?