Our Chickens' Savior... Yogurt

So a few weeks ago, the hubby and I realized our Ameracauna was being plucked alive by our other chickens. We knew she was always missing a lot of feathers on her back, but this particular morning, she had an area that was bleeding, and her back was really red. I'm sure the Arizona sun wasn't helping any either. I immediately looked to google for advice and found it at http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=34705.

I read that chickens plucking and eating the feathers of others is a sign of a protein deficiency. I was mostly just relieved to learn that our chickens weren't vicious cannibals. So I went to the grocery store and bought some yogurt to up the girls' protein.


After only a week, I was noticing a big difference in the Ameracauna. She is starting to grow feathers where there were previously none.

Before.
After.

A couple funny pictures of them eating the yogurt.

Yogurt on the foot.
Notice the yogurt covering the beaks. They will peck it off of each other's beaks, and they will also wipe their beaks of in the dirt. Not the cleanest animals.