Grooooosss......is this normal?!

elizdrose

In the Brooder
10 Years
May 11, 2009
10
0
22
I just watched my favorite chicken (a golden comet),Mrs Butterworth come at me with an intact full size mouse in her mouth.As I screamed and ran away,she in three chomps ate the mouse.Once i stopped running I looked at her and only the back legs butt and tail were hanging out of her mouth.So much for keeping them on a vegetarian diet!
 
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It may be crazy and gross, but it's normal--I've seen mine do the same thing. Sometimes they will growl when they see mice, but they usually catch and eat them too.
 
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Omigod, I need her here! Send her to me quick, my dh won't let me get a cat and she'd be perfect!! lol Gross, but practical, what a gal!!
 
I'd say you've got yourself a great chicken!!! One of my chicken ate a snake whole, swallowed it like a noodle right in front of me also. That's my kind of pest control.
 
Ours eat mice all the time. and moles. and frogs. Which I don't like. It's horrible seeing them playing tug-of-war with a frog or a mouse between them. I don't care about the mice but it would be nice to keep the frogs, and even snakes serve a purpose. Kind of funny though to see a hen running along with some victim with a whole pack of her friends trailing her, trying to catch up and grab it away from her.
 
Before I decided to go the hatchery route with my chickens I had a big free range flock and they went into the woods and ate nearly anything which they could catch. Frogs, mice, moles and even chipmunks.

Chickens are omnivores so if they don't get some sort of "animal protein" they will go cannibal and start in on each other (mainly feather eating, until one dies). The feed I use has some "animal byproduct" in it but I also supplement with scrambled eggs and cat food (as well as kitchen and garden scraps). My hatch rates really declined when I was "on vacation" for a week and the hens only got the layer feed.
 

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