My chickens are eating BAD things

big bouncer

In the Brooder
Nov 17, 2016
86
1
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One of my chickens (ticah) ate a toad. Another one of my hens (juanita) ate a mouse. But most importantly, my weird chicken (harpie) a silver laced wyandotte who is somewhat skiddish and tends to be adventurous. Ate a silicon strip about 3-4"in long. It has been about 3 days and she is acting normal. It was about 1/4 wide. I thought she had caught a young snake. What do i do?
 
I have 21 total chickens now. 2 mean roosters who raped the hens were culled. One hen, orphelia a buff orpington was eaten by a hawk as a young chicken. And one died as a very young chick because the shipment got delayed in transit. Juanita is a gold laced wyandotte and ticah is a big fluffy brahma if i remember correctly. (Black and white, very fluffy, makes funny noises like a duck when held or when she wants my attention along with her growling. She has feathered feet.)
 
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Toads and frogs are just extra protein for your chickens. Nothing to worry about there. The silicone strip - not much you can do about it, really. The only thing you can do is make sure they don't have access to any more.
 
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Toads and frogs are just extra protein for your chickens. Nothing to worry about there. The silicone strip - not much you can do about it, really. The only thing you can do is make sure they don't have access to any more.
Ditto Dat^^^^
 
At least once a week I have to take something out of the beak of one of them. Silicone, old balloon, you name it. I don't even know where they get this stuff. It's like having 9 toddlers running around. I would encourage them to catch and eat mice however.
 
:welcome

Toads and frogs are just extra protein for your chickens. Nothing to worry about there. The silicone strip - not much you can do about it, really. The only thing you can do is make sure they don't have access to any more. 
Yeah there is a whole lot of trash that weve found. We've gone on a lot of trash searches. Thanks
 
At least once a week I have to take something out of the beak of one of them. Silicone, old balloon, you name it. I don't even know where they get this stuff. It's like having 9 toddlers running around. I would encourage them to catch and eat mice however.
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Oh, man, that got me guffawing!! TY.
 
Chickens really are garbage disposals. I've had some eat silicon caulking and never had any casualties. I've had a couple of instances where a chicken ate a band-aid off my leg, also with no ill effect. The cotton pad was digested and the plastic strip was expelled in the poop next day.

However, you do want to police the area your chickens range because sometimes trash, such as sharp objects, can get hung up in the crop and kill the chicken.

But eating lizards, small toads and frogs, mice, etc, is completely normal, if yucky by our standards of acceptable cuisine.
 
My buff orpington ate a small blue rubberband a few days ago and I've had them eat silicone before too...with no ill effects. I just try to police their area as well as I can and hope for the best. Gekko's and frogs have a very short lifespan in my backyard...the girls find them to be very tasty treats.

We had to be EXTREMELY careful while the new coop was under construction...all kinds of bad things being dropped (nails, screws, pieces of hardware cloth, staples, etc) ... The builders were getting a little annoyed with me running around with the magnet stick all the time...lol...and I was getting annoyed with them just dropping crap on the ground (especially staples and small screws). Fortunately I think I got all of it up before the girls could do any damage to themselves.
 
Google 'hardware disease'.
Many a livestock have died with a stomach/rumen/crop/gizzard full of ..well....hardware.
 

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