Chicken Dandruff, (What It Really Is)

Dandruff in humans usually means that your skin is dry, dandruff in dogs and cats usually means the same thing. But how about dandruff in chickens?

Do chickens get dandruff? or are the white flakes that you see falling off of your bird not actually dandruff? This article looks into it  

If your bird looks like it’s shedding skin, like dandruff, this is likely the sheath breaking and flaking off as a result of new feather growth 

Chicken dandruff:

If you notice flakey bits of skin on your bird’s body you may think that your bird has dandruff, and many would too! But, this isn’t the case. 

If your bird is shedding flaky material that looks like dandruff the bird is likely growing in new feathers. When a bird starts to grow new feathers, the bird will first grow a sheath where the new feathers will grow out of. This sheath covers the feathers as they grow.

This sheath is waxy and looks like a shaft. It grows as the feathers grow.

The bird will try to preen itself by pecking at the area and other birds will also peck at the area to preen the bird. This causes the sheath to break off and flake off.

This pecking may not be best for your bird, the bird’s new feathers are filled with blood and protein and the other birds may start to enjoy pecking at your bird a little too much.

If the birds are pecking too much, and injuring your bird, you may need to isolate your bird 

Some pieces of the sheath may land on the floor, others will land on the chicken’s skin making it look like your bird’s skin is shedding, or has dandruff. 

Once your bird’s glossy new feathers finally grow out, this sheath would have already disappeared 

Your birds can lose feathers because of a variety of reasons.

Your bird may have been attacked by a predator and lost some of its feathers during the attack, the bird may have been fighting another bird and its feathers could have been ripped out or, the bird may be molting and its feathers may be falling out as a result  

What to do: 

You don’t have to do anything if you see this happening, this process is completely normal for chickens. It’s actually a good thing because it shows that your bird is regrowing feathers after losing them. All you have to do is let nature take its course

Conclusion

In conclusion, if your bird seems to be creating dandruff, and is also growing a new set of feathers after losing some to molting or something more aggressive, then the “dandruff” that you see is simply sheath breaking off as the new feathers grow in 

If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Chick With Swollen Bottom, Red Spots On Chicken Legs, Chicken Has Dry Flaky Skin, Red Inflamed Skin On Chickens,