Anyone ever had a chicken adopt a skunk before????!!!!

[ErieSpurs]

Now you just have to teach it to fend off predators!

Whenever a predator comes in, the attack skunk goes to work. Maybe this is the hens plan. Kinda like Timon and Pumba adopt Simba in the Lion King

Sorry I couldn't resist.

 

[Elite Silkies]

That is too cute. I use to have 3 baby skunks and they are actually very sweet animals. You might give him something to eat, so that he isn't tempted to eat the eggs when he gets hungry. You should be able to bottle feed him. Or he may be able to drink the milk out of a bowl by now.

 

[ellieroo]

we were adopted last summer by a young injured skunk. She thrived on flock raiser and good water source and is still here to this day. She never sprays and we have come around corners and been nose to nose. My friend had much the same and just fed grapes every morning as an appeasement gift!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I would foster the baby also. I love skunks.

 

[redhen]

I think that i'd feed the skunk so he wont get hungry and get any ideas...

 

[Reinbeau]

While it's illegal now, years ago a friend of mine had a pet skunk, she had been descented. She was a great pet, as long as you didn't try to pat her without her seeing your hand - she'd go nuts if you approached her from behind. She was almost cat-like, but not soft like a cat, her fur was quite raspy.

 

[dntd]

Feed him dog food, and veggies. Meat is good too.

 

[MissJenny]

OMG, is that not the cutest thing! This little skunky will likely enjoy peanut butter, apples, raisins and watermelon. Maybe she doesn't know skunks like to eat eggs.

Thanks for that adorable picture -- I have a soft spot in my head for skunks!

Jenny

 

[Boyd]

I had pet skunks growing up before they were banned with the big rabies scare in the 80's. It looks like you have a 4-6 week old baby there. At this stage, they are very impressionable and it probably feels like it's a chicken and the chicken's already broody so

. I would put a heat lamp in there and maybe encourage the little beast to curl up under that in a nice bed of hay. 1/2 of my skunks were descented and kept locked up, others were domesticated after they got stuck trying to get into the pens of our pets and are easy to make friends with.

Mine loved scrambled eggs in the winter.. We did feed a moist food though when the ground was too frozen for them to dig for grubs. They can eat hard foods such as dog or cat food, but their teeth are more geared towards ripping and tearing not crushing and grinding. Now I may be remembering wrong, but I am almost positive that we also gave ours the vaccine for feline leukemia as well as the rabies vaccination designed for cats.

My favorite and first girl was named Violet (of course after the skunk in babi) and was a great pet for close to 8 years. Unfortunately she got old, her teeth abscessed and fell out despite our best efferts, and since we were already grand fathered in because we had them before the ban, we never got any more. Just don't startle them, and they are cute and funny predators.

Don't doubt that it will eat your baby chicks when they hatch though. Best to move it to a lower spot and your hen to a higher one if you plan on letting it stick around.

 

[JestersEye]

My dad was always adopting and raising orphaned wildlife so we had our share of animal experiences growing up, including three baby skunks. They were a lot like kittens but they definately had some wild behaviors, some intinctual and some they had no doubt learned from their mama before they got separated from her (she was hit by a car, btw). Anyway, when skunks are young, their scent glands aren't fully developed so they can't really spray yet. The ones we had sometimes "tried" to spray suddenly, as if they remembered that they should react that way to people... but it didn't do much at all. They had a distinctive musky body odor, reminiscent of the typical skunk smell, but not as strong or acrid. If you notice the skunk lifting its tail while planting its back legs in a wide stance, then chances are it's starting to practice its spraying posture. They are cute and I have heard they can make good pets. I think it just depends on how wild they are to begin with, before being adopted by humans or other caregivers.