Enrichment for disabled chicken?

[JacinLarkwell]

Barred Rocks are bred to be worth butchering, not to be fat. Only CornishX and other commercial meat crosses are bred to get so large they cant move

 

[micstrachan]

Does she want to roost? You could try making a ramp up to the roost for her.

THIS. I was going to suggest it, but will finish reading the thread before jumping in.

 

[micstrachan]

What is on the floor of the run for litter? Is it fall where you live? My flock will stay very busy if I bring in a bunch of leaves to scratch through. They also go CRAZY for a 50-pound bag of rice hulls. They will scratch in it all day long, and even choose the rice hulls over free ranging. They might be finding bits of rice in there, though, which might not be great for fat. Can you hang some shiny things to peck at?

 

[HappyClucker7]

Can you give her exercise in another other way? Anything?
The excessive fat has to have a source...
How big is the run?
What do you feed?

I can't remember exactly how big the run is, but I built it for 8 chickens. I have 3 adults in there now, and 4 chicks.
I usually give layer feed, but I'm feeding chick starter right now because of the chicks that are in there.

 

[HappyClucker7]

What is on the floor of the run for litter? Is it fall where you live? My flock will stay very busy if I bring in a bunch of leaves to scratch through. They also go CRAZY for a 50-pound bag of rice hulls. They will scratch in it all day long, and even choose the rice hulls over free ranging. They might be finding bits of rice in there, though, which might not be great for fat. Can you hang some shiny things to peck at?

The floor of the run is a mixture of dirt, sand, and some pine shavings.
It's not fall yet, but the leaves are slowly starting to turn. I can through some leaves in there for them when they do fall.
I could also put some dirt in there. I'm sure she would have fun scratching in that. She loves worms.

 

[NatJ]

I'm sure she would have fun scratching in that.

I'm sure scratching is good exercise for chickens!

And you can probably let her have as much green stuff as she wants to eat--that tends to be fairly low in calories, but picking and eating bits can keep a chicken busy.

Watermelon is pretty much just water in eatable form--chickens seem to like the rinds just fine, so you could eat the red part yourself

 

[Vicker]

Do you offer any type of vegetation or insects comparable to what they'd eat if they were free-ranging? Chickens with access to lots of other things to eat don't eat as much processed feed. Scratch is like candy and it's best not to offer it often to confined chickens.