Mean (and dangerous) rooster

[donrae]

Cull him. Trust me, there's enough meat there for some soup or something. Or just use him as fertilizer. Do not tolerate an animal that attacks a human.

And please, for the love of all future chicken generations, DO NOT breed this rooster. Temperament is passed down and you'll just have mean offspring.

 

[RaintheRooster]

Cull him. Trust me, there's enough meat there for some soup or something. Or just use him as fertilizer. Do not tolerate an animal that attacks a human.

And please, for the love of all future chicken generations, DO NOT breed this rooster. Temperament  is passed down and you'll just have mean offspring.

I wouldn't stand to have him culled... He protects the hens the best he can and just doesn't have respect. He's more of a pet than anything, we don't hatch eggs. I just wanted him to respect me.

 

[RaintheRooster]

Do you really really really want to make this rooster behave like a nice, calm, well-mannered roo?

Make the decision. Commit to it. It's possible to train him to behave.

What you have to do is restrict his space, make it impossible for him to go anywhere except to be with you. It will require a lot of time and effort, but in the end, he'll respect you and trust you and won't treat you like the enemy.

You can do this in a number of ways. You can spend time with him in his space, or bring him into yours. Place him in a small cage, bring him indoors, put him beside you on the couch, watch movies together for several hours. When it's time for bed, put him in his cage right beside you. Oh, and let him get good and hungry.

The whole point is to deprive him of his freedom to do anything other than be in your space. After a few days of this, take him out and hold him. If he struggles, or tries to bite you, pinch the skin on the back of his neck and hold his head rigid. When he calms down and is quiet, offer him some food. If he tries to bite or struggles, remove the food. Don't yell or rant. Keep your voice even and calm.

Or you can do this out in his run. Restrict him to a small cage and spend as much time as you can with him. Again, withhold food until he's hungry. He needs to know that food, being good, comes from you, which equals good. When he's being bad, he goes hungry, when he's behaving and is calm, he gets fed. Keep his space carefully restricted for a week, with only you inside this space.

Soon he will look to you for the comfort of food, and learn that good behavior gets him food. And he will adjust to being in a restricted space with you. Gradually increase the space, continuing with the food for good behavior.

Gradually increase the size of the space he's allowed to occupy with you. He only gets food and freedom of movement if he behaves.

This should take a week, but the training will need to continue for up to a year. Any rooster can be rehabbed with the right training. But it requires a lot of work, if you're up to it.

Your attitude must be consistent. Never show fear. Always show confidence and calm. You can transform this little demon. It's possible.

Thank you!! I can't bring the rooster into the house but I guess I can carry him around and keep him in a cage. How long can a rooster go without food? I don't want to starve him.

 

[azygous]

Keeping him in a cage is just half of it. You need to spend a lot of time with him so that he forms a bond with you. Let his crop get empty, about 24 hours should do it. Then offer him food from your hand. If he refuses the food, wait eight hours and try again.

When you spend time with him, hold him, carry him around, but don't let him walk around free on his own. The point is to make him depend on you for food as well as mobility. To make this bonding effective, the more time you spend with him over this next week, the better. If you can spend fifteen minutes out of every waking hour with him, it will probably be adequate. More is even better.

Remember the rules. No food if he's behaving nasty. Food and treats only for good behavior. If he makes a go at your hand when you try to feed him, immediately close his crate and walk away. Don't just leave food for him in a feeder (but make sure he has plenty of water). He needs to associate the goodness of food with the goodness of you. All food he gets must come directly from your hand. After a couple days, try touching him as he eats from your hand. He needs to begin to trust you and allowing you to touch him will help to build it. Remember, anytime he reacts negatively, no food.

After a week, you can begin letting him out in a very small pen. His freedom should increase only incrementally. Giving him back all his freedom at once will make him think he overcame you and is boss.

Check back here and we'll adjust the program as needed.

 

[RaintheRooster]

Keeping him in a cage is just half of it. You need to spend a lot of time with him so that he forms a bond with you. Let his crop get empty, about 24 hours should do it. Then offer him food from your hand. If he refuses the food, wait eight hours and try again.

When you spend time with him, hold him, carry him around, but don't let him walk around free on his own. The point is to make him depend on you for food as well as mobility. To make this bonding effective, the more time you spend with him over this next week, the better. If you can spend fifteen minutes out of every waking hour with him, it will probably be adequate. More is even better.

Remember the rules. No food if he's behaving nasty. Food and treats only for good behavior. If he makes a go at your hand when you try to feed him, immediately close his crate and walk away. Don't just leave food for him in a feeder (but make sure he has plenty of water). He needs to associate the goodness of food with the goodness of you. All food he gets must come directly from your hand. After a couple days, try touching him as he eats from your hand. He needs to begin to trust you and allowing you to touch him will help to build it. Remember, anytime he reacts negatively, no food.

After a week, you can begin letting him out in a very small pen. His freedom should increase only incrementally. Giving him back all his freedom at once will make him think he overcame you and is boss.

Check back here and we'll adjust the program as needed.

So basically I just leave him in a cage until he doesnt have food in his stomach anymore, then I try to feed him by hand, and I carry him around when possible. My parents will think I'm killing him by starving him, so what should I do? I showed my mom this thread and she said at maximum only 2 hours without food, and I'm at school for most of the day.,. What can I do?

 

[azygous]

Can you devote your entire weekend to this project? I didn't know you were a young person still going to school every day. We'll need to come up with a plan taking that into account.

Here's the thing with your new little rooster. You are new and scary to him. He's in a new place that he doesn't know and he's scared. The reason he's acting out is because he's trying to get control over his environment. He doesn't have anyone he can trust except himself, so that's why he's trying to act mean and tough. He's trying to show you and your family that he's the boss.

The goal is to get him to see that he doesn't need to be mean and tough and be the boss. In order to do this, you need to make him feel secure and safe, and after that, he will be able to learn to trust you to be the boss. To do this, you need to make his world smaller. That's why he needs to be in a cage for awhile.

For the rest of this week, put him in the cage and put it in a quiet place away from the other chickens. Provide food and water, and keep the cage clean. If your mom is up to it, if she takes him out of the cage every couple of hours and stands him on a newspaper, he'll take care of his business very quickly. Chickens, if given regular bathroom breaks, won't soil their cage. She should have several layers of newspaper on a table or window ledge so he won't be tempted to run away. After he goes, she can roll up that layer of paper and toss it and pop him back into his cage. I bet you never knew roosters can be paper trained. It beats cleaning the cage.

When Saturday comes, don't feed him that morning. Wait until mid-morning, abiding by your mother's wishes. He should be hungry enough to make this training work. Offer him some food from your hand. If he refuses, try again in an hour. Keep trying every hour until he eats from your hand. Feed him every half hour after he's eating from your hand. Do this all day Saturday.

On Sunday, when you give him his food from your hand, begin petting him on the back. If he doesn't let you, stop feeding him. Try again an hour later. Keep trying every hour until he lets you stroke him while he's eating. Do this every half hour for the rest of Sunday.

On Monday, leave food and water for him in his cage while you're at school. As soon as you get home, resume the food training while touching him while he eats. Feed him from your hand every half hour until you have to go do homework and go to bed.

Do this every day until he gets very comfortable with you and doesn't act out any more. By this time, you can begin enlarging his world. Have a small pen set up just big enough for you to be in there with him. He needs to feel safe and secure with you and not have to worry about all the other chickens just yet. Continue to feed him from your hand while he's out of the cage in this small pen. This may take a few days or a week, but he needs to be comfortable in this small pen with you and your mom, if she's going to also be his caretaker. It would be good if she takes part in some of the hand feeding, too. Then he'll learn to trust her, too.

After he learns to trust the humans in his life, then you will be able to introduce him to the rest of the chickens. That's enough for now. We'll cover that part later.

So, we're trying to make this little rooster feel safe and trust the humans in his life and when he does, he won't act like a little demon anymore. It's going to take some real effort and a bit of your time, but it beats cooking him.

 

[RaintheRooster]

I have tried anything I could, but it never worked. Once he got out of the coop into my neighbors pasture and started attacking the horses!! I don't know what to do... I want to sell him, but (one of my) family members wants to keep him. Now what?

 

[RaintheRooster]

I found some ways to do it. Squirt him with a spray bottle, trap him under a bucket for 5 minutes or so, or just force him to sit with your hand until he calms down. He never messes with me anymore.

 

[handyman42]

If the only thing you're worried about is him attacking humans then kick the fire out of him or hit him good and hard with a stick a couple times and he'll stop that quick.

My grandpa told me a story of an old tom turkey that flogged him, one day pappaw had enough and when he came up to flog my pappaw he turned around with a stick in his hand and hit him right between the eyes. Knocked him cold as a wedge for a minute but when he came to that turkey never messed with him again.

Just a thought.

 

[RaintheRooster]

If the only thing you're worried about is him attacking humans then kick the fire out of him or hit him good and hard with a stick a couple times and he'll stop that quick.

My grandpa told me a story of an old tom turkey that flogged him, one day pappaw had enough and when he came up to flog my pappaw he turned around with a stick in his hand and hit him right between the eyes. Knocked him cold as a wedge for a minute but when he came to that turkey never messed with him again.

Just a thought.

Haha, basically a bit what I did. He won't mess with me ever again, even though his head is hollow.