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Roksteddie

Feather loss - moulting or mites/lice?

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Over the last few weeks I've noticed that 2 of my girls, but one in particular has started losing a few feathers a day. Everyday there are newly dropped feathers in the run and around the garden. The 3rd girl doesn't seem to be affected. I've tried examining them all and can see new feather sheaths growing in place of the old ones on the worst affected girl. So I assumed that she was simply moulting. But it's the middle of summer and she's only about 9 months old - and I thought they didn't really moult until they were a year old.... looking at the skin I can't see any evidence of any nasties, I don't think.

 

The 2nd girl doesn't have any new feathers coming in that I could see... however I did notice what I think was faint traces of 'dust'... the skin doesn't look broken, no actual mites/lice visible. They could be feather pecking but I haven't really witnessed any of this.

 

So could they be moulting? Could this be early signs of nasties? And should I treat them anyway just to be sure?

 

Slightly panicking here!!!!

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It's entirely possible that they are moulting - my current flock is about 2 years old now, and some of them started to moult a bit when we had that sudden drop in temperature and darker days. There are a few less eggs too.

 

By all means watch out for feather pulling and check them regularly for mites and lice, although if you have a preventative regime, you shouldn't see any.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about it, if they are 9 months old, then they are likely to moult this autumn.

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