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Why is my chicken losing feathers in patches? Is it a disease?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Other | Unknown - Other | Female | unspayed | 2 lbs

Why is my chicken, penni, losing patches of feathers? Does she have a disease?

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1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on June 8th, 2018

Penni may be molting, have mites or, if you have a rooster as well, the rooster may be rubbing the feathers off as he fertilizes Penni's eggs. If she is molting , it will look very ugly and she will lose and replace all feathers and look fairly naked during molt. Mites can cause feather loss, but you would see her scratching and picking at herself. If you have a rooster and it is caused by him, you can get a little chicken apron to put on her proteting her back feathers. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

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