enrichment/enclosure for indoor setup (plants,toys, etc)

[WildNectarine]

I don’t see you commenting on posts where quail live 1sqft a bird in a wire-bottomed cage with absolutely nothing to do, so why me? Does it just amuse you? Because I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t need validation, I know what I’m doing is right by the actions of my birds, and I want others to at least know of these methods so they can utilize them, I wish I knew all of this when I started.

 

[Chickenpoonumber2]

What an interesting thread. This is my first time with chickens, and after 3 weeks of them in the brooder in my house I was ready for them to go outside. They make a lot of mess with dust and poop. They also grow very quickly! As to the original question about enrichment; I put things in their run for them to interact with and then I take them out and put in different things, old baby toys, a bin on its side, and I often toss in bugs for them to chase around. By rotating the enrichment items, they can stay fresh and interesting.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Chickens can thrive indoors. While this may not be true of all chickens, here’s a thread on seramas, a breed that is often kept indoors due to their size and sensitivity to weather conditions: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/american-serama-thread.415294/
(Something I’ve noticed is that any newbie who posts about having/wanting an indoor chicken is immediately told their chicken will be miserable, but a Serama breeder can say they keep their chickens indoors during the winter and get no backlash at all.)

I think on threads like these it’s important to not immediately chastise people for even thinking of keeping a chicken indoors, but instead educate them on what that would require, and make sure they’re up for the challenge.

I’ve had indoor pigeons and quail and, while the birds were happy, it was definitely a lot of work. You have to be committed to doing this work not just when you first get them, but throughout their entire lives. People who have adopted a pigeon from me as an indoor pet have returned them to me on more than one occasion because they simply didn’t have the time to give the birds enough free roam time or keep up with their cleaning.