How to make chicks cuddly and pettable? Feeling discouraged...

[Liz Birdlover]

Thats awesome that your kids love the birds.
I recently had company in and my 9 yo niece fell in love with Paco, and he with her. Problem is, Cockatoos are very manipulative, and he soon had her sneaking him snacks all day ! I was wondering if it was just a food manip but knew he really liked her when he crawled off the perch, walked over to her, picked his foot up, which is universal for hold me / pick me up, and ran right up on her shoulder and gave her a kiss on the cheek and just sat there rubbing on her face. She melted, but me, after 10 years of ownership just said, ok you little $#^# you fooled her because she's a kid but you DON'T fool me ! I know this is all working towards .... attention and food.. and it worked !!

To be honest, she picked midnight out and had a chicken that would sit on her lap too a bit also. She would not listen to me, caught a lizard in the yard, (hundreds of them running all over the place, this IS Florida afterall) and decided to show it to midnight as a new pet to play with. Well you know where that went, and THAT chicken got no more lovin for the rest of that day !

on that, can chickens be potty trained in any sort of manner? cockatoos can, but chiickens? dunno. Might be a good trait for one on the lap / shoulder etc.

Aaron

I had a house pigeon that was potty trained. Sort of by accident, I learned she liked to poo on paper, when I was sorting junk mail on the floor one day. She was such a sweetheart. I don't know about poultry, but there are "bird diapers" you can try.

https://www.amazon.com/pranovo-Diaper-Poultry-Chicken-Fashionable/dp/B07MCWK6S9/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=chicken+diapers&qid=1655313887&sr=8-5&th=1&psc=1

https://www.chewy.com/well-dressed-chick-batik-watercolors/dp/360236

This is TJ my sweet girl, miss you so much, she couldn't fly due to deformed feathers. I'm sure she flies over the Rainbow Bridge now.

 

[SourRoses]

I don't know anything about making a pet chicken as we don't really have the time for that, but as for encouraging less skittish chickens, we've had more success with leaving them alone during the scaredy-chick phase.
They see and hear us a lot since we brood on our porch and we sit out there on and off all day, and they get confident in the idea of us being there without encroaching on their personal bubbles.
The chicks we hatched ourselves seem friendliest, perhaps because they didn't have frightening experiences being handled/sexed/shipped. Even well into scaredy-chick phase now, my little ones look up at me from the brooder and still show curiosity about what I'm doing (but I don't give treats), meanwhile our super docile Orpingtons they're in with who we got from a local breeder seem uninterested in us.
So, if I were seeking pet chickens I would start with hatching them.

 

[Cheepwizard]

Hello guys! I'm wondering what are your methods to get a chick to be more friendlier, cuddlier and pettable.

I know chickens are food motivated, but I have no success in having them eat any treats. I tried mealworms, wetting their starter food, scrambled eggs, and boiled egg yolks, but they always ignore it.

My first batch of chicks were are a disaster since it was my first time raising chicks and I made a lot of mistakes thus making them super skittish. I was determined to make things right with my second batch of chicks. The second batch consists of 3 chicks that are a little less than 3 weeks old now and their breeds are a Lavender Orpington, Barnevelder, and a Blue Americauna. The most outgoing and curious of the trio is the Orpington.

I made sure to use a brooder that allowed me to reach for them from a ground level and the sides are open mesh so they can see me when I approach. I spend 30mins everyday sitting on the ground and hanging out with them, manually dropping their feed so that they know my hand isn't a threat, making the same clucking sound when I visit and feed them, and petting their wings and crop when their busy eating. Hand feeding them their starter feed is iffy currently. Anything that requires me to reach from above and possibly scare them like cleaning their brooder I always do at night in darkness since they won't be able to see me or anything for that matter.

While they're happy to see me when I'm visiting them and would come up to me, they would back away if I try to pet them anywhere when their NOT busy eating. Whenever I pick them up, they always scream and try to wriggle out. It makes me worried that the small shred of trust that I cultivated with them is shattered whenever I attempt to grab them.

Do I forcefully hold them on my lap until they stop screaming and wriggling away? How do you make your chicks interested in eating treats? What other things did you do to get your chicks to be cuddly and pettable? Does this get any better or am I doomed to have chickens that never want to be held/pet?

It makes me discouraged because I feel like everything I'm doing is wrong and that all this extra effort is worthless.

My chicks didn’t like getting close to me until they got about 4-5 weeks old and the odd thing that seemed to entice them was some live bugs I gathered from outside (small worms and Rollie pollies, nothing dangerous) then they started trusting me more and what helped me to pick mine up was do it while they are perching, go from underneath and get them to stand on your hand then build up to pets and holding I hope this helped!

 

[Ascholten]

Speaking of, I don't know why but mine have been awful affectionate lately. They are constantly following me around and squatting every time I stop. I literally was walking today and stopped, suddenly. Two chickens ran into me, one bumped into my leg and the other one fell over the one who head planted into the back of my leg. I turned around and said ok what the hell !! Looked down, seen two chickens all tangled up, one set of legs in the air as they untangled from that mess. how does a chicken trip over another chicken? Ok YES I have been petting them and fluffling them up but still, again, this can get annoying, I got to mow the lawn and do NOT need them anywhere around the darned lawn mower. What I usually do is throw a handfull of scratch grain into the pen, they run in and I close them in. Some of my totes have clover and chickweed trying to take over, Ive been feeding them that too. Maybe that's why I am in such attention mode?

Aaron

 

[Chickassan]

Hey, you fluff up the chickens you pay the price.
You didn't think that stuff was free did you?

Speaking of, I don't know why but mine have been awful affectionate lately. They are constantly following me around and squatting every time I stop. I literally was walking today and stopped, suddenly. Two chickens ran into me, one bumped into my leg and the other one fell over the one who head planted into the back of my leg. I turned around and said ok what the hell !! Looked down, seen two chickens all tangled up, one set of legs in the air as they untangled from that mess. how does a chicken trip over another chicken? Ok YES I have been petting them and fluffling them up but still, again, this can get annoying, I got to mow the lawn and do NOT need them anywhere around the darned lawn mower. What I usually do is throw a handfull of scratch grain into the pen, they run in and I close them in. Some of my totes have clover and chickweed trying to take over, Ive been feeding them that too. Maybe that's why I am in such attention mode?

Aaron

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Speaking of, I don't know why but mine have been awful affectionate lately. They are constantly following me around and squatting every time I stop. I literally was walking today and stopped, suddenly. Two chickens ran into me, one bumped into my leg and the other one fell over the one who head planted into the back of my leg. I turned around and said ok what the hell !! Looked down, seen two chickens all tangled up, one set of legs in the air as they untangled from that mess. how does a chicken trip over another chicken? Ok YES I have been petting them and fluffling them up but still, again, this can get annoying, I got to mow the lawn and do NOT need them anywhere around the darned lawn mower. What I usually do is throw a handfull of scratch grain into the pen, they run in and I close them in. Some of my totes have clover and chickweed trying to take over, Ive been feeding them that too. Maybe that's why I am in such attention mode?

Aaron

Love it, made me laugh out loud! Yes, I've also had tumbling chickens, tripping with legs in the air, then Rooster comes over to see what the hubbub is, sees the hens looking silly, has a ticked off expression on his face so then he bonks one on the head as if to say, "Straighten up, you're embarrassing us!"

Do your Roos investigate any hen commotion & then get annoyed & Straighten the hens out? Too funny! He reminds me of the oh so serious school bus monitor...any kids acting silly are gonna get it!

 

[Chickassan]

Im going to pay out the nose for these belly naps.
Btw this is Carlotta,she was one of the loudest most stressed babies.
I think she's going to make it lol.

 

[zathious]

Ig we got lucky? We have 4 and they dont seem to have any problems being handled even by my toddler. I had a flock a couple decades ago and those where the same way. Each of my kids get "their" own chickens that specifically belong to them. My daughter who is now 22 use to let her chicken just perch on her shoulder as she walked the yard feeding the other chickens. Maybe its the breed? We got them mostly for the pet aspect and teaching the kids responsibility and such so we weren't really focused on good meat or large egg quantities. We did get eggs because they were hens lol but the focus was more education we got the bantams on both occasions. We ended up with a red but he was a rooster and the only of his breed so i cant say i have experience with anything but the bantam

 

[Ascholten]

Be careful with toddlers, they can hurt the bird, not knowing, or meaning to, or possibly meaning to,but being toddlers, not thinking their actions out.

I remember back in the days, you could get baby ducks and chickens all over the place around easter time. They'd put them in the easter baskets and stuff. They were considered 'toys' and the people would essentially throw them out or let them fend for their selves after their use for the day was over with.

My great grand parents were from the old country and to this day I remember oh geez, i think i was 5 or so, asking why we can't get baby ducks and grandma telling me, that is evil what is being done to those birds and explained to me how they are not play things and you must take care of them afterwards, because they are alive, and that our dogs would eat them, and that is why we can't have any, because if the dog ate it, it'd be MY fault. and that was the end of that request !! Then I remember being a young one maybe 8 or 9 years old, seeing people giving them to their 4 year olds, the kids treating them horribly and me getting mad at it because of what grandma said,

To this day, you can still kind of see the Easter push at tractor supply places, sort of,but not like it used to be where even the damned grocery stores had them in bins, hurry only 2 days to easter, get your easter basket chicks here !!

Sorry for the rant but thinking of toddlers with baby birds just gives me a huge cringe.

Aaron

 

[cluckcluckhens]

I held all of ours as chicks. The chicks will try to avoid a hand reaching in to pick them up. It is catch me if you can. As ours got older they still didn't like being picked up. When I'm in the run the hens surround me waiting for treats, scrambled eggs etc. If they are laying in the coop like ours was it was so easy to pet them there. The Hens like to be petted on the head like a cat would. The thing I do is hold some food between my fingers and let them take it though the run enclosure. I've also put food in the palm of hand while in the run. I have a tree stump in the run. When it gets warmer here I sit on it and feed them treats. As long as our Rooster's stay away. I talk to our Hens, they follow me around for goodies. I hold them while they are in the coop. You should talk to the chicks to get used to your voice.

Chickens or chicks don't like us running. They got scared when I ran so now I walk a slow pace.
Give it some time. It will not happen over night but it will happen. And, one mistake I did was I got nervous and stressed around the chickens when he got chicks in 2012 and after. We are always learning something new. My avatar is my girl from 2012 and she is still laying. She gets treats first if possible.