Hen is dangerously overweight. Help!

[ChicknThief]

Her legs look pretty slender to be a Cornish x... I vote Rock.

 

[Sparklewina]

I wouldn't dare kill Darcy, and no matter when and how she dies, I certainly won't be eating her. She's practically my baby. I rescued her from an abusive owner when she was just a couple of days old and I just cannot kill her.

EDIT: Also, I'm vegetarian, and so is my mother, the only other person who lives here. We'd have no use in killing a chicken for food.

I totally support what you said here. It's a shame that human intervention have forced living animals into being products. If you feel you can try to give her good quality of life then do. Euthanizing a pet is a very personal thing, and the word "cull" sounds so harsh to those of us who love our chickens as we do our dogs or our kids.

 

[Pele]

Well, the good news is that Darcy is not a Cornish Cross. She's a White Rock. A Cornish Cross that had been given free feed by this age would already be too heavy for it's legs, and would be spending most of it's time rubbing it's stomach feathers off by sitting, and getting it's tail filthy by not moving after evacuating it's bowels. They're not easily mistaken for other breeds by that point, and are well on their way to slowly suffocating themselves to death under their own weight.

I personally think Cornish Crosses are a terrible thing, and a violation of humanity's responsibility towards stewardship of animals. I will get meat birds at some point when I get more land, but they will be birds that can walk, forage, grow feathers, and enjoy their existance, rather than just edure existing while sitting in their own waste.

Along those lines, I would very much urge you to please really think about your position as steward to your animals. It means taking responsibility for making hard choices that they can't make for themselves when they suffer. Making statements like "I would never kill an animal, ever", is saddening. Please take your animals to a vet to perform acts of mercy, if you can't yourself. Like I said, life isn't about just eduring your existance. If the circumstances are extreme, and all the cards are played, the fine line of cruelty is a hard one to avoid walking by inaction when you have the power to make things right.

Please don't take the above as a criticism, but rather as heartfelt outreach by someone who cries over kittens that are so cute they tug my heartstrings. I love animals deeply, and salute others that do as well. But I also know that my love can blind me at times, and my ownership of animals can't always be about fun for myself. They're more important than my fun or comfort.

 

[tuesdaylove]

I totally support what you said here. It's a shame that human intervention have forced living animals into being products. If you feel you can try to give her good quality of life then do. Euthanizing a pet is a very personal thing, and the word "cull" sounds so harsh to those of us who love our chickens as we do our dogs or our kids.

Thank you for supporting. I know, I hate the term "cull." It's so... ugh.

Well, the good news is that Darcy is not a Cornish Cross. She's a White Rock. A Cornish Cross that had been given free feed by this age would already be too heavy for it's legs, and would be spending most of it's time rubbing it's stomach feathers off by sitting, and getting it's tail filthy by not moving after evacuating it's bowels. They're not easily mistaken for other breeds by that point, and are well on their way to slowly suffocating themselves to death under their own weight.

I personally think Cornish Crosses are a terrible thing, and a violation of humanity's responsibility towards stewardship of animals. I will get meat birds at some point when I get more land, but they will be birds that can walk, forage, grow feathers, and enjoy their existance, rather than just edure existing while sitting in their own waste.

Along those lines, I would very much urge you to please really think about your position as steward to your animals. It means taking responsibility for making hard choices that they can't make for themselves when they suffer. Making statements like "I would never kill an animal, ever", is saddening. Please take your animals to a vet to perform acts of mercy, if you can't yourself. Like I said, life isn't about just eduring your existance. If the circumstances are extreme, and all the cards are played, the fine line of cruelty is a hard one to avoid walking by inaction when you have the power to make things right.

Please don't take the above as a criticism, but rather as heartfelt outreach by someone who cries over kittens that are so cute they tug my heartstrings. I love animals deeply, and salute others that do as well. But I also know that my love can blind me at times, and my ownership of animals can't always be about fun for myself. They're more important than my fun or comfort.

I'm glad to hear that she's a White Rock. Even so, she's still very heavy and I'm going to do my best to shed some weight off of her.

I would like to clarify some of my earlier statements. When I said, "I would never kill an animal, ever," I was pretty upset as there were some people telling me that I should put Darcy down immediately. I don't know if you read one of my earlier replies on this thread, but I've twice made the decision to have animals put down because they were suffering - an old hamster who had a stroke and a cat in severe pain and torment due to herpes and leukemia.

If there's anything I've learned in seventeen years of constantly being around animals, it's that pet ownership is definitely not always fun or comfortable for me. I do try to always do what's best for the animals, even if it's not what I want. And I can tell that you deeply care for animals, and I salute you for that.

 

[ejctm]

I would be absolutely sure the hen is overweight before putting her on a diet and restricting her food. She doesn't look fat to me, but rather like my own large fowl hens who are big but not fat and weigh over 7 pounds. Mine lay eggs the same size as duck eggs, so you can see they are big. If you are just comparing her to bantams then she will appear huge. She might even be a white jersey Giant!!

If you feel down her chest, you should feel her keel, it is a ridge of cartilage/bone running in a line from her chest to her belly. You should be able to feel it sticking out a bit when you run your hand down her chest. If it is very prominent (like a knife blade) , this is a sign of an underweight bird, and if you cannot feel it at all, a sign of an overweight bird. A "just right" bird will be somewhere in the middle - you can feel it but it is not sharply sticking out.

Give this a try and please make sure you know the weight of your hen and whether she is abnormal for her breed or not, before doing anything drastic.

 

[ChicknThief]

I would be absolutely sure the hen is overweight before putting her on a diet and restricting her food. She doesn't look fat to me, but rather like my own large fowl hens who are big but not fat and weigh over 7 pounds. Mine lay eggs the same size as duck eggs, so you can see they are big. If you are just comparing her to bantams then she will appear huge. She might even be a white jersey Giant!!

If you feel down her chest, you should feel her keel, it is a ridge of cartilage/bone running in a line from her chest to her belly. You should be able to feel it sticking out a bit when you run your hand down her chest. If it is very prominent (like a knife blade) , this is a sign of an underweight bird, and if you cannot feel it at all, a sign of an overweight bird. A "just right" bird will be somewhere in the middle - you can feel it but it is not sharply sticking out.

Give this a try and please make sure you know the weight of your hen and whether she is abnormal for her breed or not, before doing anything drastic.

x2 She doesn't look fat to me. Just healthy.

 

[tuesdaylove]

I would be absolutely sure the hen is overweight before putting her on a diet and restricting her food. She doesn't look fat to me, but rather like my own large fowl hens who are big but not fat and weigh over 7 pounds. Mine lay eggs the same size as duck eggs, so you can see they are big. If you are just comparing her to bantams then she will appear huge. She might even be a white jersey Giant!!

If you feel down her chest, you should feel her keel, it is a ridge of cartilage/bone running in a line from her chest to her belly. You should be able to feel it sticking out a bit when you run your hand down her chest. If it is very prominent (like a knife blade) , this is a sign of an underweight bird, and if you cannot feel it at all, a sign of an overweight bird. A "just right" bird will be somewhere in the middle - you can feel it but it is not sharply sticking out.

Give this a try and please make sure you know the weight of your hen and whether she is abnormal for her breed or not, before doing anything drastic.

I can't feel anything like that on her belly, but I can feel it on the bantams.

 

[chickers]

x2 She doesn't look fat to me. Just healthy.

I agree. She doesn't look fat to me either. If she has problems with her legs, they may not be caused by her weight but by something else. Do you know anyone near you who is familiar with chickens and could watch her walk?

As for getting her friends, feed stores should still have pullets in stock, or you could try craigslist under farm and garden.

 

[tuesdaylove]

I agree. She doesn't look fat to me either. If she has problems with her legs, they may not be caused by her weight but by something else. Do you know anyone near you who is familiar with chickens and could watch her walk?

As for getting her friends, feed stores should still have pullets in stock, or you could try craigslist under farm and garden.

She had a slightly splayed leg as a young chick. It wasn't severely sticking out, but it had a tendency to slide outwards, away from her, and it caused her to fall over. I placed rough towels in the bottom of her brooder and the problem corrected itself, so I don't know if that could have anything to do with it now. I don't know anyone else in real life who has any experience with chickens, so I'm not sure what to do about it. :/

There's some feed stores around here, so I'll check into that.

 

[TheJadeChicken]

Your hen doesn't look fat or like a cornish cross. Here is my 1 year old cornish cross.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/image/view/album/6214237/id/5118726/sort/display_order

https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/image/view/album/6214237/id/5118722/sort/display_order

And I have hen that I was told was a White Leghorn, but she looks just like your hen.