Big, Mr. Meanie - UPDATE

[SoccerMomof7]

Quote:
I think my red bulb are cooler then my reg heat bulbs.

 

[Chirpy]

I think that what you're doing by isolating him/her is your only option at this point.

I just want to say that I had to isolate one chick in my first bunch and when it was time to put her back with the others - they wouldn't accept her. I ended up putting her in with my smaller chicks (she wasn't aggressive) and they accepted her. When I integrated the whole flock later on, it was like I had two separate flocks for months even though they all lived together.

 

[JaneandLizzy]

There are definitely more aggressive birds; I would say breeds, but it's more like certain strains. The two Jap roos I have from two different places are both really sweet, but I keep hearing how aggressive they are for others. All of our Mille Fluer roos have been terrible, unlike the rest. They are like attack robots. They were held often, like all the other chicks, hand fed, and still attack. They even attack when there is a fence between, and when they have a broken leg. We got rid of our nasty Sebrite roo for this reason. We have small children, and there is a possibility of injury, including blindness from flogging roos. Be careful with a chicken of any size that pecks eyes!

I doubt your chick is going to end up a nice bird, but it may stop pecking so much once the pecking order is established. I wouldn't risk it myself, since this one is pecking the eyes. I've never had one do that.

Blue-Kote works! But, not so close to the eyes.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

All the EEs and Ameraucanas I've had before seemed to always be the sweetest ones out of the bunch until this banty one I ordered from MCM came in. I've had mine come in from them for years and this is the first one that has been vicious like this but it wasn't entirely his fault. The phoenix kept pecking him until he turned on him and the others. But since isolation he is a different bird and gets along with everyone now and the same for the phoenix. Matter of fact the two are buddies and stick close to one another now.

 

[Chamelle]

KC, I had a bad baby too. A little ameraucana (EE) go figure. We made her a chicken jail, just like you, in the same brooder, and kept her isolated for a couple of days. She had been pecking at several of the other chicks until they were bloody. THEN all the other chicks ganged up on the bloody ones, it was gross and scary.

We had been using a white heating lamp during the day and a red one at night. We started using the red lamp only.

What also seemed to work with her was having other things to peck at. I dug up a chunk of sod and put that in with them and put in a pan of coarse sand to eat as well as dust bath. I also just tried to find other things to keep them occupied. I got a large rock for them to climb and sit on, more roosts. One thing that worked well for the pecking was a large piece broccoli. They picked at that for a long time. Eventually they'd get it small enough to pay keep away.

I kept them really busy for a couple of days, and things mellowed out after that. Now they are 5 weeks and other than normal pecking order stuff, no one gets picked on.

The blu-cote did keep the others from pecking the injured ones.

I got lots of good suggestions from here, good luck!

 

[kodiakchicken]

Thanks so much for all the ideas.

Mr. Mean is still in solitary confinement. He quieted down with the stuffed frog for awhile but then he got loud again so I put the mirror in there. He pecked at the mirror for awhile and then settled down and everyone rested through the night. This morning I noticed him pecking at the mirror pretty frantically again. We'll give him another day or so. I can tell he's lonely, so maybe he'll decide to behave himself. He's in the same room though, so he can at least hear everyone else. I don't even mind if he turns out to be a roo, as we live out of town and it's not a problem, but I will NOT have a mean animal on my place.

We did bring the red heat lamp in and the others settled down just fine. No pecking at the Miss Peep and her bruised eyes. She was up and had her eyes open today, so healing quickly. I did notice that the one other Araucana kept attacking my daughter's fingers. She wouldn't attack mine, but the minute my daughter reached in she would jump really aggresively toward the fingers. We finally figured out that it was because she had blue nail polish on. We removed the polish and no more attacking. Since these two likely came from the same hatch I'm thinking I probably won't be getting any more of this breed from this dealer. Just too aggressive.

As far as the dog goes, she was good all night. She was pretty vigilant, and every now and then I'd catch her staring through the wire mesh on top of the totes, but she mainly just laid by the totes all night. I can't tell if she's guarding or wanting to attack. She was an pound puppy with an abusive past so she's got her own set of idiosyncrasies. I'm just keeping and eye on her and reprimanding her if she acts aggressive. Normally she's the sweetest thing in the world, but new things make her nervous. When we got my daughter's kitten 2 years ago, the first time it hissed the dog went nuts and tried to kill it. After that though, the dog became like the little kitten'm momma and they've been close ever since.

Thanks again. Hopefully Mr. Meanie will learn his lesson! All my co-workers are calling ME the big meanie for putting a tiny little chick in solitary!!!