Rooster losing barbs in tail feathers

[jillianjo]

I have a 3.5 year old Ayam Cemani rooster who has slowly been losing bits of his tail feathers. From what I understand of the anatomy of feathers, he’s losing the barbs, but the shaft remains.

It doesn’t seem to be a molting issue, because it’s happened slowly over the last few years and the feathers never grow back (or grow at all). I think he is molting along with the rest of the flock right now (hence the rough looking chest and butt feathers), but he’s never had a noticeably hard molt since we’ve had him, it’s always pretty subtle.

For reference, here’s a photo of him around 6 months old, with his fully feathered tail:

And here is a photo at 1 year old, where you can see that there are starting to be missing barbs:

And now here we are 2+ years later and it’s just gotten worse and worse. He’s mostly been on layer feed since adulthood, though I recently learned that the higher calcium in layer feed isn’t good for roosters so I’ve switched everyone to an all flock feed (17% protein) with oyster shell available for the ladies. I know higher protein is good for regrowing feathers, it just doesn’t seem like these will regrow since the empty shafts haven’t fallen out. Any suggestions?

 

[Yardmom]

Is he 2 or 3? As a 2 year old or 3 year old all his feather shafts should let loose and be replaced by new feathers. The damage was still in place to see if he never molted all the way.
Do any of your other birds have a similar issue. There are mites that can cause this type of damage.

 

[jillianjo]

Is he 2 or 3? As a 2 year old or 3 year old all his feather shafts should let loose and be replaced by new feathers. The damage was still in place to see if he never molted all the way.
Do any of your other birds have a similar issue. There are mites that can cause this type of damage.

He is 3.5, hatched in April 2020.

I’ve thought about mites but haven’t seen any damage to the other chickens. I can do a more thorough check of his feathers next time I pick him up though.

 

[jillianjo]

I just picked him up and looked at his feathers. I can’t see any nits on the feathers but I’m not sure what else to look for in terms of evidence of mites.

I also inspected his rump a little closer, here’s a close up photo. In addition to the feathers with missing barbs there are also a lot of broken shafts still in the skin. Will it just take another molt or two for these to fall out as new ones grow in? You can see one big new feather growing in but that seems to be it.

 

[minaayindra]

I just picked him up and looked at his feathers. I can’t see any nits on the feathers but I’m not sure what else to look for in terms of evidence of mites.

I also inspected his rump a little closer, here’s a close up photo. In addition to the feathers with missing barbs there are also a lot of broken shafts still in the skin. Will it just take another molt or two for these to fall out as new ones grow in? You can see one big new feather growing in but that seems to be it.

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This looks like it has the potential to be mites, at least as a partial part of your problem; there is a good video on the chickenchick website that shows her cleaning up a mite infestation under their feathers and I've certainly seen it up close a few times. The medicine she recommends is super-easy and is as amazing as she says it is... it is also super-pricey but it would resolve any mite issues for him or any other chickens he is with. Hope you were able to find some answers- my rooster has this same problem but we finally figured out it was his favorite hen pulling his feathers out and pecking at him. Why he adores her I have no idea...