Chickvic Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Quartz our lovely Skyline, is pulling her own feathers out at the base of her tail and up her back. She had (before we got her) managed to get in with a flock of chickens that pulled a few feathers out so she was a bit fluffy round the base of her tail. She had let the feathers grow back to about an inch and then pulled them all again The other girls do occasionally have a peck but they don't pull the feathers out and blood has not been drawn. We've tried purple spray (she looks like she's got purple lipstick on ) and anti-peck spray. We re-did the anti-peck yesterday and this morning she is preening as much as ever! We're looking at poultry saddle to cover the area and stop her doing this but do they come down far enough? Does anyone have a pic of their chicken/s wearing a saddle so I can see how far down it goes? Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavysqueak Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 I had a chicken who pulled out all of her tummy feathers although she didn't go broody?!?!? Everytime the feathers started to grow back she pulled them out again. I took her to the vet, just in case it was a parasite and he suggested that it had become almost a behavioural pattern. Eventually her tummy went red and sore, so in some desperation I covered the area with petroleum jelly to try to stop the skin from being as sore. This seemed to have the effect of stopping her from pulling out the feathers. I'm not sure if it was the effect of soothing the skin and therefore she wasn't pulling the feathers out because the skin wasn't sore anymore, or if the new feathers were slippery from the petroleum jelly and she couldn't grab them to pull them out, but for either reason it seemed to work. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Just wondering -Is she starting to moult? My Girls are all preening like mad at the moment. Two of them havealmost finished regrowing, one is in the early stages of moult, and 2 don't look like they've started yet but I have been finding a few of their feathers. All 5 of them are preening a lot, it's an itchy time for them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammiboo Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 most of mine are moulting. a few of them aare looking a sorry sight. They are preening more than they usually do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickvic Posted November 1, 2011 Author Share Posted November 1, 2011 No, pretty sure she's not moulting I think it's a habit as well, so I'll try the petroleum jelly idea but if not it'll be a saddle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
