Our bodies can tell you a lot about what is going on with us, this is the same with animals. A chicken’s face changing color certainly communicates that there is something going on with the bird.
This article is a look into why your chicken’s face is changing color.
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Why does my chicken’s face change color?
If your bird typically has a certain coloring on its face, say light pink, and this coloring starts to change to a different color then you’d be right to be confused.
Here is why your chicken’s face may be changing color:
The bird is hot or excited:
One reason why your bird’s face may change color may be that the bird is hot or excited.
These birds can feel a change in temperature quite quickly and their bodies will react when they are hot, one of the ways these birds will react is by changing the color of their face.
These birds may also change color in their face when they are excited, either because they see food or because they are excited that you are around.
What to do:
If the bird seems to be overheating then you can cool the bird down by giving it refrigerated snacks to eat throughout the day.
You can also cool the bird down by creating more shaded areas and moving the bird into the shaded areas as well as leaving containers of cold water out that the bird can swim in
Asserting themselves:
If a bird is trying to assert itself then its body language will communicate this, including its face.
A chicken who is asserting itself will flush or blush red. The opposite will happen if the chicken is submitting to a more dominant bird.
If the chicken is submitting while in the presence of a higher-ranking bird then the submissive bird’s face will go pale while the dominant bird’s face will flush pink or red.
What to do:
The changing of your chicken’s face color is quite normal and isn’t something that you should be worried about.
As long as the bird isn’t showing any signs of distress along with the color change, and as long as the birds are behaving normally during this time, then your bird should be fine.
Egg laying:
Egg laying can cause some serious changes in your bird and one of these changes is the bird’s face changing color.
The face color of your laying bird may change from pale pink to a bright red and back to a pale pink color.
The bird’s face may change color only for a minute and this color-changing can happen many times throughout the day.
The birds may be doing this sporadically because they are new to this and new to egg-laying. The birds will get used to this as they lay more eggs.
What to do:
This is quite normal behavior in chickens and is not something that you’d need to worry about.
Just as before, as long as the bird doesn’t seem to be suffering from any distress along with the color change in its face then your bird will be fine.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Chickens Skin Green?, Why Is My Chicken’s Skin Yellow?, Why Is My Chickens Face White, Chicken Has Lump Under Eye, Chicken Swollen Under Beak, Why Is My Chicken’s Skin Red?, Red Skin On Chicken Head, Why Is My Chickens Face Red?, Chicken Pale Around Eyes