20 week old meat bird pet

[chickensducks&agoose]

We decided that her life has been hard enough, (survived a fox attack) and are keeping her as a pet until her quality of life diminishes... at which point, we will treat her with respect and bury her. She seems awesome so far, and we are trying to restrict her feed, but I did find her IN the feed can, just gorging herself.. one of my kids left the lid off. she roosts at 3 feet, with the other birds, and is doing great. We did process/eat all her old friends, but she's getting along fine with the egg layers.

I tried to pick her up last night, since she wasn't roosting over the middle support, and the roost was bending... and I thought she was frozen to the wood... but she was just so, super heavy that she wasn't moving when I tried to lift. I'm going to weigh her soon.

 

[silkydragon]

lol i raised some i got from tsc like normal chickens free range regular feed and it is the same size as my rir rooster maybe a lil bigger and is an awsome layer

 

[eKo_birdies]

i would add a lower roost for her so she doesn't hurt herself jumping down since she's getting so big

 

[CMV]

Quote:
Agree. It would be a shame for her to break a leg at this point. That would be a death sentence for her. Good luck.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

She's doing really well, started roosting on a wire cage that I keep in the coop for isolation purposes. here's a picture of her (the white one) with her 4 adopted 'babies'.

 

[Luvroos]

Is her weight natural for meat chickens or is she on a special diet? I were told by a few to place my roos on grain for meat birds but can't see myself doing this since they are my pets. I don't know enough about it in regards to pros and cons.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I just feed her less than I feed the others... she's still huge though, but seems real healthy.

 

[Ibicella]

chickensducks&agoose :

I just feed her less than I feed the others... she's still huge though, but seems real healthy.

That's good. I hope she has a long and happy life and lays you lots of giant eggs!

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

when do they generally start laying eggs? i got her in july... so she's 22 weeks. i don't care if she lays eggs, I'm keeping her anyway, look how she puts up with those giant babies after SO long!