Husbandry for an inside chicken

[Safety Chicken]

1) For those of you with house chickens, what do you do about dust bathing? I brought a chicken in at the end of October to rehab an injury and now I can't put her back out because the rest of the flock tries to kill her (I've had to rehab 2 more injuries that happened while she was inside a dog crate in the run). Now it's too cold to put her out there for a while since she's used to being in my warm house, so she might be inside until spring (I'm at 10,000ft). Finally for the first time she was doing the dust bathing behaviors on my carpet. I put her in the bath tub with some wood ash, but she was just confused about being in the bath tub shut away from everyone.

2) I'm also worried about her beak and toenails growing too long. Has anyone used cuttlebone for chickens so she can peck at something rough and still get calcium from that?

3) She's definitely lonely when she's in her wire dog crate and loves being out with us, but she can't be out all the time. Her butt gets all nasty with the diaper on and she is still laying, I don't want diaper eggs. Should I bring one of the other chickens inside too? Her crate is really not ideal for 2 chickens, it's only about 2x3ft and I don't have space for a larger one. She gets treated like a princess. She gets all the yummiest treats and we are training her to do tricks, but she's still a social creature that's alone at least 50-70% of the day and I feel bad for her.

 

[JaeG]

It's easy enough to trim beaks and toenails if they get too long - dog nail clippers work well. You could leave a radio on for her and a mirror might be enough to keep her company - I remember reading about someone who had an inside girl and she'd spend most of her day in front of the mirror. Can you get a puppy play pen or something so that she has a bit more space when you aren't at home or will she fly over the top? You could get her a seed block or a treat ball as that would give her something to do when you aren't there. And I'd hang bunches of greens, again, to give her something to peck at.

I've had bantam broodies inside and they were quite happy to jump into a storage container with sand in it to dustbathe. It was probably just the change in location that threw your girl. If you carry her in there and let her perch on your arm to check out the facilities she should get brave enough to hop in and try it out, especially if she can see a favourite treat sprinkled in there.

 

[Safety Chicken]

It was probably just the change in location that threw your girl. If you carry her in there and let her perch on your arm to check out the facilities she should get brave enough to hop in and try it out, especially if she can see a favourite treat sprinkled in there.

Yeah, I'm gonna get a covered catbox and see if she'll go in there (so I can have my bathtub back). I've got a mirror on order. The top comes off of my dog crate, and if I leave it open and walk away she jumps right to the top of the wall to perch and then jumps out if she's alone for long enough, so a playpen would last 5 minutes to confine her.

 

[Safety Chicken]

Here she is watching TV with us. She's so cute.

 

[KentuckyRooster]

Mine don't dust bathe. They don't seem to care. I trim their beaks and nails regularly.