Cigarette Addict...

[Year of the Rooster]

My barred rock pullet is 9 weeks and I think she's addicted to cigarette butts. In the past three days she has eaten two. Will she be ok? and what can I do to stop her from eating them? My brother is the one who smokes and throws them where ever he wants and we have told him not to throw them in the yard. I DO NOT want a drug addicted chicken. She is already at the bottom of the pecking order and I don't want anything to get worse!

 

[chickenlady]

The only way to stop it is to stop your brother or lock up your birds.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

You should ask your brother if he would not mind eating chicken poop. I mean that is all they have to "throw" down.

 

[jjthink]

Ugh - people using the earth as an ash tray is one of my pet peeves. I would explain to him that the butts are toxic to the birds and to the water supply (are you on well water?). Buy him 10 ash trays!! Maybe the kind that can sit really tall on a stand, out of the reach of the birds!
JJ

 

[MissJames]

Quote:
Cigarette butts are the filter part .It catches a lot of the toxins in cigarettes....and there are a lot. I know butts are dangerous ,even deadly to children that chew on them.The concentration of nicotene alone is harmful.
here is a link
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046181.htm

good luck with your brother

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Thanks for replying everyone. As far as my brother, I don't know what to do about him. He's 21 and isn't home much and when he is, he doesn't follow the rules much. I asked my neighbor and she called her brother who raises chickens and he said they would be fine.

I hope he's right. Thanks for your help.

 

[jjthink]

Unfortunately, he's not right.
Cigarettes, butts and all, are toxic. That's one of the reasons it burns me when people callously throw them on the ground, or mindlessly empty their car ashtrays onto the road when in traffic jams, something I see virtually every single day (this stuff finds it's way to the water supply). We humans are unconscious on average, unfortunately. Your brother is young so he has the ignorance of youth in his defense at least! But that said, try to educate him and provide him with an alternative (tall ashtray) and maybe you can also bribe him by letting him win on something else less important to you and the birds and the planet.
Good luck on this.
JJ

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Quote:
Thanks JJ. What would you recommend I do with her? Give her antibiotics? herbs? maybe separate her? I don't know what to do and like I said in my first post, she is at the bottom of the totem pole.

 

[ozark hen]

anyone coming to our place must smoke outside but only if they put their butts in an empty can as I will not allow them to throw them down so the chickens can pick them up and eat them, although it may be funny to see a chicken running around with a butt in their mouth....... not a safe thing to do.

 

[swtangel321]

Quote:
Thanks JJ. What would you recommend I do with her? Give her antibiotics? herbs? maybe separate her? I don't know what to do and like I said in my first post, she is at the bottom of the totem pole.

Nothing much you can do right now !! No need to do anything unless she ends up sick !! She could be just fine, it might not effect her at all !! Just keep an eye on her !!