American serama thread!

[bnewns]

They're still not up on the site, do you know when they'll be available? It's a month away 'till New Years, and a bunch of us are doing the New Years Hatchalong, LOL. Be nice to have 'em available....?

They are taking order now. I use facebook for them. let me see if I can find a line. You do have to be a member to order, but like I mentioned membership is free and Wild West Serama Club is a great club to belong to and is drama free.

 

[bnewns]

They are taking order now. I use facebook for them. let me see if I can find a line. You do have to be a member to order, but like I mentioned membership is free and Wild West Serama Club is a great club to belong to and is drama free.

http://www.wildwestseramas.com/join-the-club.html The facebook forum is a closed group, but once you are a member you can join. That's where the information for the leg bands is. I think tomorrow is the last day to order.

 

[kukupecpec]

OK, I am being a bit lazy here, but this thread is miles long, and my eyes are crossing from reading, so I skipped to the end to ask do you raise your Seramas as indoor cage birds/house pets all year round, or only in the winter and free range/coop them the rest of the year?
How do you keep them healthy when they are indoors so much? Do you use strong lights to mimic sunlight? Regular lights? Rely on what comes in the windows?
What do you use on the cage floors - raised wire like for parakeets? shavings? piddle pads?
Should they have their own room, or is a cage in the livingroom OK (for socialization) and cover them at night?
I am used to outdoor LF chickens, but neighbors don't want any chickens in the neighborhood (and I failed the available setback for a coop by 6 feet, so lost my flock to code enforcement

) so I thought maybe keeping indoor Seramas might soothe my chicken yearnings.
Can they be walked on a bird leash in a tiny chicken harness or do they stay put on your arm/shoulder like parrots?
I do have one crippled Silkie on wood shavings and a duck on piddle pads, so those are available, but the shavings are probably too big (the "fluffy" kind) and the wire does not look comfortable, so... piddle pads - or sawdust maybe?

"I keep my two seramas indoors in a rabbit cage with large pine shavings. I may switch to hay, i seem to have an abundance of that, and less will end up on the floor from their scratching - the back and two sides are covered to prevent flying shavings. I let them out pretty much whenever i am home. They just wear diapers. I leave the cage open and they can fly quite well in and out of it to wherever they want. They can start to smell pretty quick if they stay in their cage much, so i try to sift their litter daily with a cat litter scoop, but it still has to be changed weekly. Once i start hatching i will probably only keep two in the house all the time, the others have a nice big run and coop outside with a cookie tin heater. I cover my two seramas when they decide is bedtime. This keeps my roo from crowing at 5am. He will crow when i take the cover off, or when he hears the household stirring in the morning. He will also crow when he thinks he has found a nice high spot in the house lol! But i love having them inside."

I forgot to add - Mine don't "walk" per se on their leash and harness, I mostly only use the leash to keep them from getting spooked by something and taking off when I take them somewhere _ they frequently go with me to school and out to errands like JoANNS and the feed store, occasionally walmart but I don't want to offend anyone by bringing a bird around stores with food, I hate it when people bring their mini dogs so I gotta be careful I don't become a hypocrite. For the most part, if I am walking around with them on my arm, or they are in the kiddie part of a shopping cart, they stay put, but I always have a leash on them out and about if only for safety. They have a difficult time balancing on my shoulder if I am moving so they only sit there if I am sitting still.


One last thing - which is probably good for EVERYONE - make sure you are actively keeping your chickens parasite free! I have been meaning to add DE to my litter for the indoor seramas and to the nesting boxes outside but have just been preoccupied and I brought in a fecal sample from my seramas for an assignment as school and we find MICRO tape worms

! They are invisible to the naked eye, but we found their eggs in the fecal sample. It was a strain contagious to humans as well

, and actually quite common in humans, but you would never know you or your birds had them without having all the things needed to microscopically look at a fecal float. I will definitely be de-worming ALL my chickens on a regular basis now. I went right out and bought DE as soon as I found some to add to everyone's litter, and dewormed them and I'll check again next week after the second round of de-wormer to make sure. But thought I would let everyone know that just because you can't see it, doesn't mean they don't have anything.

 

[serama hen]

Well i gave back my kapan and now i only have a cockatiel i made a thread if anyone wants to come by i miss my chichie sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much

 

[Captain Cluck]

Thank you for the information Kukupecpec. - Yeah, I misspoke when I said "walk" the chicken. I keep a leash on my duck at all times for the same reason you do, but when she meets resistance (the end of the leash), she eventually goes the same way I'm headed.

Do you make your own diapers for your birds or do you buy them from someone?

And how did you get Joann's to let you bring your birds inside?

 

[alexandraintn]

Thanks for the worm info. Next trip to town its on my list.

 

[alexandraintn]

Hey this is a pic of the rooster I need to rehome. I am switching to a frizzled rooster. He is around 2 and very healthy and yes free if someone can take him I would appreciate it. Thanks for looking.

 

[kukupecpec]

Thank you for the information Kukupecpec. - Yeah, I misspoke when I said "walk" the chicken. I keep a leash on my duck at all times for the same reason you do, but when she meets resistance (the end of the leash), she eventually goes the same way I'm headed.

Do you make your own diapers for your birds or do you buy them from someone?

And how did you get Joann's to let you bring your birds inside?

IF only they were as leash easy as dogs haha

I make my own, I don;t like the giant boxy shape of the diapers sold on here because lovemychix - who has a really nice pattern - ignores all my PMs so I just looked at her diaper pictures and made mine to look the same! They work great and I don;t have to pay shipping haha. Plus I can have them in any color I like, and I can attach really strong metal leash loops like a dog harness instead of the little wimpy plastic ones everyone seems to sell on their diapers here.

I used to work there. Loved it to! But the General manager wouldn't change my hours when school started so I had to leave =( All the ladies, including the reg. managers loved me so they all love to see Taco. I usually only bring Taco. Belle is more flighty and not as trusting of me, so she only goes to the feed store. People bring their little dogs in there with them and put them in the kiddie part of the cart all the time. I don;t see why a well behaved super tiny chicken in a diaper should be any different. I use a "seat cover" like the ones you see people use with their babies so they don't have any contact with the dirty kiddie seat although min eis more so people don't complain that my "dirty chicken" is on their precious community cart. I used the same pattern but I didnt include the leg holes so they won't fall out. I'm thinking about making a new one that has a little pocket for treats... but that won't be til after christmas.

 

[kukupecpec]

Hey this is a pic of the rooster I need to rehome. I am switching to a frizzled rooster. He is around 2 and very healthy and yes free if someone can take him I would appreciate it. Thanks for looking.

Hes so pretty!!!! I wish I were closer! I would take him in in a split second!

 

[austinhart123]