Dirty Chicken

[sticksoup]

My Buff Orpington is filthy. I do not expect such unladylike personal hygiene from her~ but there you have it. The other day I brought her in the house to enjoy some air conditioning (we live in Florida and the heat is here) and she spent some time cleaning her feathers- but not enough and she got plenty of dirt in the house. I know they all like to spend extra time in the cool dirt- but she is really a pig, especially compared to her sisters. Can I give her a bath? I know she loves foot baths. My DH says "the book" (chicken care book) says that chickens like baths... but I'm dubious. Thoughts on this anyone?

 

[Dar]

yep many people here give their chickens a bath... i think they use baby shampoo on them but dont quote me on that

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Give that yucky girl a bath!

Seriously, that will do wonders. I bathed one of my silkie mixes who got all nasty, and after she looked like a whole new bird! Use warm water and you can use dog/cat shampoo.

 

[OccamsTazer]

I know lots of people do this, but...

Every time I see a post about bathing a chicken, my mind just boggles.

 

[chickengrandma]

My girl didn't like her bath the first time. The second time was absolutely no problem at all. The next time around she absolutely loved the warm hair dryer...she fell asleep!

One of our girls is the cleanest pooper - not a dot of poo on her butt. We asked her to show the others how she does it, but apparently the training isn't going too well. We have a couple of girls with the most disgusting butts.

Have fun with the bath! Plan on getting wet!

 

[sticksoup]

Thanks everyone! It's bath time!

 

[Kait27]

I had to do some spot cleaning on a chicken with a dirty butt... I put her in the sink and used the sprayer attachment. She didn't particularly enjoy it, but she tolerated it. You might find that no soap is even necessary, just a good rinsing will do the trick.

Also, it might be better for the chickens if you don't bring them into the A/C and then back out to the heat. Animals are more adept at tolerating heat and cold than people are, and going inside for a bit just to cool off / warm up can be detrimental to their health. It can cause shock when they go back outside, and they lose any tolerance they built up. Same goes in the winter... Most chickens who have to be brought inside because of injury or illness in the winter have to stay inside for the rest of the winter, because they are no longer able to tolerate the cold.

 

[feathersnuggles]

I've only bathed them when it's been absolutely necessary, because I've found they just get dirty again pretty quickly. I don't normally bath just because of caked poop around the vent, because it will just be caked again, tomorrow. But once I bathed a hen who had horrid greasy poop all over her back and wings - it was cecal poop, I think. She musta been standing in the wrong spot, LOL! It was just too hard for her to get it off, even though she made some attempts. And it stank! So, I brought her inside for a warm bath. Used Dr. Bronner's unscented, btw. Dr. Bronner's works just fine to break up the greasy goo, but doesn't too badly strip the natural oils on their feathers.

Use a blow dryer, on low setting, to dry the birds before putting them back outside again. Dry feathers are the only way birds can regulate their body temps.