Have I done the wrong thing with my roo?

[buckbeak]

You can pick him up when he is eating or drinking, or lift him off the roost when you first open the coop in the morning. I would just walk around with him under my arm going about feeding and watering in the morning for a few minutes until he quiets down.

 

[buckbeak]

Do a search on roo behavior for a page written by rooster-red. It has lots of great info.

 

[jjthink]

kay, thanks for wanting to sort this out. All too often, it seems people give up too soon on beings in their orbit. A resourceful squirrel grabs some chicken food and they shoot it, a roo misbehaves once or twice and it's soup......Sigh......
I have had one blissfully wondrous roo after another, the latest for somewhere between 9 and 10 years now I think. He is an angel and I would - and have - moved heaven and earth for him.
It's not that I haven't met brat roos - I know they exist - but hopefully one or more of the non violent techniques people have used to chill them out (not literally!) will work for your little guy.
Can you let him have time with a girl friend or two and see if that lifts his spirits? Give him healthy treats when he's being good (cut up fruits, sunflower seeds). Maybe I've just been lucky but I've found that praise and other positive reinforcement for selfless kind behavior breeds more of that good behavior.
JJ

 

[Pele]

This won't help necessarily with your current roo, but if you ever raise another, I have had super amounts of luck with the following technique:

Roosters are very reactionary, and the two things that trigger their most aggressive reactions are fear and dominance. Your rooster will attack you if he sees you as a threat to his flock, and he WILL attack you if he believes himself dominant to you.

To counteract this, I have taken to raising my roosters to both understand that I am not a threat and will not harm them, and to understand that I am dominant. I handle my baby roos on a daily basis several times a day, and make sure each handling accompanies lots of treats along with a non-scary environment (ie your cat not sitting two feet away). With each handling, I put the baby rooster on his back in my hand and give him belly rubs. This is a very submissive position for birds, and will imprint in his brain from day one that you are the one in power, not him. The rooster will struggle at first, but after just a few handlings, will accept it easily and sometimes even fall asleep. The second thing that this type of position helps with is that it shows your bird that you are not going to harm him, and are not something scary to protect the flock from. If you have him in a vulnerable position on a daily basis, and he never gets harmed, he will not end up fearing you.

This treatment from an early age results in roos who naturally believe you are dominant, and who do not see you as a threat to the flock. I have had really bratty roos who boss everytning in the universe around (a bucket, a wheelbarrow, larger birds, etc), but who will come to a screeching halt if they accidentally charge me in their rampage. Even if the charge was accidental, I make sure that they get picked up and get cuddles, which reasserts your dominance over them (and in my mind embarrasses them as much as a mother hugging her son at the prom). Make sure to hold them until they stop squirming.

If you have a roo that fights you even after all of the above, you have yourself an aggressive gene that should be culled anyway.

Hope that helps you in the future!

 

[Squirrelgirl88]

You have my sympathy. I have a grumpy rooster, that I just cannot bear to cull. He and I are still trying to come to an understanding. I never thought I would negotiate with a rooster. I agree that it's very easy to just say " put him in the pot". But I cannot bear to end his life just because he is acting like a rooster.

I will say, while some people use the seperation and confinement thing, I don't agree with it. He needs to learn how to act as a part of the flock. Isolation doesn't teach him anything. Most animals - and people - have a hard time understanding consequences. Does the rooster actually think - "hey I ran at the big person and she locked me in a crate. maybe I should play nice".

More likely he is plotting the next flogging!

Don't fell bad about second guessing yourself. I've shed many tears over this rooster.

Maybe we should start a suppor group for owners of grumpy roosters.

 

[terrilhb]

Quote:
How do you get your roo so you can pick him up? I can't catch my roo without cornering him with a sheet of cardboard. He goes crazy until I catch him then he is ok. I don't do that much as it makes them all (8) uneasy for a while.

Oh only 1 will let me. I guess he just got tired of me chasing him. Sometimes he still fusses. But he knows I am going to. Now the other 2 are a different story. I have to do alot of chasing and alot of sweating. But they learn.

 

[kera!]

Quote:
agree....mine is going.