- Dec 14, 2013
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We recently (within the past month) inherited two bantams from a friend, they're about three years old and to our knowledge were perfectly happy (though ate entirely corn and mealworms?!)
Tibs was near the end of her moult at the time, she has since finished, looks luscious, and has settled in nicely, and seems to be very patient about the fact that she's not getting as much free range time as she's used to so long as she occasionally gets a handful of mealworms. She was initially unimpressed by layers pellets, but we offered her layers mash and she's wolfing it down.
Ziru however (who has always been on the small side) started her moult later, and she was a little shyer. She got greasy looking, and kind of withdrawn, but we were advised by a vet that this could happen with a moult.
Ziru died this morning. We buried her in a corner of the garden, and set Tibs out on a bit of free ranged fun whilst we stripped out, scrubbed out, disinfected, mite powdered and everything else we could think of the house, Tibs is now back in the run and seems no worse for ware (though my paranoia meant that we mite powdered her in case it wasn't just a combination of too much stress during her moult that saw to Ziru)
I am concerned in this weather about Tibs getting cold, we had put a piece of excess carpet over their house in an attempt to insulate it a bit more, will the house need more insulating than this to keep a single chook warm now she can't huddle for warmth?
I am worried about Tibs getting lonely and wanted some advice on when would be the best time to introduce some new chooks, I obviously want to wait a while and keep a very close eye on Tibs to ensure she stays in good health before I bring new chooks in and risk making them unwell if she's carrying something we don't know about, and I know that any new chooks would need to be quarantined for 2 to 4 weeks to ensure they're not carrying anything and that they should then be slowly introduced to our existing chook. We had been looking at getting a new coop with a substantially bigger run space, so we were thinking we should put the new chooks in that one, and introduce Tibs to them, is that a wise decision of should it be the other way around? What else would I need to be aware of?
Tibs was near the end of her moult at the time, she has since finished, looks luscious, and has settled in nicely, and seems to be very patient about the fact that she's not getting as much free range time as she's used to so long as she occasionally gets a handful of mealworms. She was initially unimpressed by layers pellets, but we offered her layers mash and she's wolfing it down.
Ziru however (who has always been on the small side) started her moult later, and she was a little shyer. She got greasy looking, and kind of withdrawn, but we were advised by a vet that this could happen with a moult.
Ziru died this morning. We buried her in a corner of the garden, and set Tibs out on a bit of free ranged fun whilst we stripped out, scrubbed out, disinfected, mite powdered and everything else we could think of the house, Tibs is now back in the run and seems no worse for ware (though my paranoia meant that we mite powdered her in case it wasn't just a combination of too much stress during her moult that saw to Ziru)
I am concerned in this weather about Tibs getting cold, we had put a piece of excess carpet over their house in an attempt to insulate it a bit more, will the house need more insulating than this to keep a single chook warm now she can't huddle for warmth?
I am worried about Tibs getting lonely and wanted some advice on when would be the best time to introduce some new chooks, I obviously want to wait a while and keep a very close eye on Tibs to ensure she stays in good health before I bring new chooks in and risk making them unwell if she's carrying something we don't know about, and I know that any new chooks would need to be quarantined for 2 to 4 weeks to ensure they're not carrying anything and that they should then be slowly introduced to our existing chook. We had been looking at getting a new coop with a substantially bigger run space, so we were thinking we should put the new chooks in that one, and introduce Tibs to them, is that a wise decision of should it be the other way around? What else would I need to be aware of?
Welcome To BYC and Happy Holidays! Sorry about Ziru, hope Tibs stays well.
