Chick started eating raw mouse carcass!

[mountainchickens]

Mine are on Corid right now, and my favorite "pullet" turned out to be a cockeral this morning, and to top it off I found a hair wrapped around my baby silkies toes cutting into the flesh and making it bleed. Just got finished doctoring that one.
There's endless things to stress about. Just means we love them.

So sorry about your pullet and your silkie. I hope the rest of your flock are okay and get well soon! It is kind of endless - before any of our girls were sick I was busy worrying about if their run was good enough, the amount of free-range time they get, building them a tractor for the day time, and getting them new feeders and waterers! Well, I agree. It means we love them and I'm glad I can give them a good life.

 

[AmyJane725]

So sorry about your pullet and your silkie. I hope the rest of your flock are okay and get well soon! It is kind of endless - before any of our girls were sick I was busy worrying about if their run was good enough, the amount of free-range time they get, building them a tractor for the day time, and getting them new feeders and waterers! Well, I agree. It means we love them and I'm glad I can give them a good life.

I'm glad we can give them a good life too. I'd much rather worry than have them live with someone who doesn't care. They bring me so much joy. Make life worth living.

I agonized about all of that stuff too. When I was planning the coop/run out there were so many things to think about that I didn't even know could be problems. It's all said and done now though. The last stress is letting them go outside. They went from my bedroom to the garage. I don't want to put them outside with all the parasites and predators. I know they'll be happy being able to be outdoors though, and I made their home as safe as possible, and I have a fully stocked first aid kit, so if they get any creepy crawlies I should be prepared.

 

[mountainchickens]

I'm glad we can give them a good life too. I'd much rather worry than have them live with someone who doesn't care. They bring me so much joy. Make life worth living.

I agonized about all of that stuff too. When I was planning the coop/run out there were so many things to think about that I didn't even know could be problems. It's all said and done now though. The last stress is letting them go outside. They went from my bedroom to the garage. I don't want to put them outside with all the parasites and predators. I know they'll be happy being able to be outdoors though, and I made their home as safe as possible, and I have a fully stocked first aid kit, so if they get any creepy crawlies I should be prepared.

Totally. Whenever they wake me up early wanting to free-range (we have one crazy hen who will do a continuous sound for almost a minute at times, and repeats it until she gets to go out!) I think about other homes they could be at - homes of people who couldn't care less about their welfare, people like owners of battery farms, etc. We need to work on our first-aid kit but we do have some basics that make me feel a little better - namely Corid, a respiratory antibiotic, vetrx, electrolytes, and this powder a local vet prescribed for if we see any signs of sickness in them. Plus the stuff our girls are on right now! One of our chicks is on the respiratory antibiotic and I couldn't be more glad she's the one sick, as weird as that sounds, because she takes antibiotics so well. She'll drink them like water. You can get 4ml into her in 10 minutes with barely a drop spilt! Anyways. Yes, putting them outside is one of the last stresses and the biggest - and it was hard for us because we live in an area filled with bears... We lost 6 to them once and got half the door ripped off another time. So now we have an electric fence and it's worked so far!

 

[PirateGirl]

As long as the mice haven't been poisoned, it's fine. Even with most diseases they don't pass between birds and mammals. There's always a chance of intestinal parasites, but the mice and your flock are already exposed to all the same parasites in your environment anyway.

 

[MarthaTheRooster]

So long as you're not using an poisons to kill the mice your chickens will be fine eating them! My hens used to live in a barn that was plentiful in mice and it was very comical seeing the girls catch them then running away with their prize! I've also seen the catch and eat small snakes as well, just goes to show they will eat anything they can catch

 

[Abriana]

Mine kill and eat mice all the time. And frogs. And songbirds (if they can catch
them). Once they killed a rat, but I took it away because it seemed to large for them to rip up and eat

 

[5hens&aroo]

My chickens love frogs, snakes, worms, anything like that. I’m sure mice will be fine for them to eat!