Can you have a broiler chicken as a pet??

[ajcountrylife]

This is my first time raising chickens and I am wondering if you can raise broiler chickens as pets??? I bought them with the purpose for meat but I didnt know if I could keep 2 of them as pets to be with my other chickens. My other layer chickens at night seem to cuddle with the broilers so I was thinking it would be nice to keep 2 of them. Any thoughts on this....

 

[mtnhomechick]

It's a wonderful idea but unfortunately I don't think it will work long term. They usually die within months. They are bred to live " short term".

 

[saddina]

If you've been feeding it the heavy broiler rations... most likely not. They're just not designed to last.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

It could be possible.. but you would have to ration his feed so that it doesn't overgrow. This is usually the cause and their bodies grow to fast for them to handle, so they do not live that long.

 

[ChickenGirlKC]

I realize this is a very old post but, I think it may help someone else if I share my recent experience. I adopted 2 white chickens that were about 8 weeks old. The person I got them from had taken them from a friend that works at the post office where some baby chicks were ordered but never picked up. This was my first attempt at raising chickens. They did well and seemed normal at first, then I started to wonder about them. They did not roost, they got really big really fast. I built them an extra wide and long "handicapped" ramp (I hope that does not offend anyone) because they could not get up the 8 inch wide ramp. Then I started to do some research and realized that my "free" chickens were meat type birds. They did lay a few eggs, one here and there, and they were pleasant enough so I decided to just let them be my big fat pet chickens. But they got so big that they struggled to get around and I worried about how comfortable they could be. I read many posts, including this one, trying to decide if I should put them down or if I should just let them be. I decided that it would be best for them if I had them humanely killed. I was supposed to drop them off on Sunday. I couldn't do it. they seemed ok.... Well, today (Wednesday), one of them flopped over on her side, struggled for a few minutes and ended up dying on her back, legs in the air. It was terrible to see. I am dropping the other hen off tomorrow so that she, and I, don't have to go through that again. They were about 10 months old. I hope reading this helps someone else make a very hard decision. They were my little white chicken friends and I wish I just went with my gut feeling so that poor Thelma didn't have to die that way. Good luck trying to decide.