Hey there! My name is Val. I have had chickens before and I loved them, but this time is not going as smoothly for us. For one, one of our 3 wk old chicks got out this morning and got eaten by the cat. Which was really tramatic for everyone in our house. And now I have a Black Sexlink that is spitting water when we hold her. Is that normal??? It's kinda freaking me out. What should I do? Could it be stress? I just don't want to lose another. My 8 yr old daughter has been crying for an hour about the other one. TIA! Blessings, Val
Don't know what to tell you but just wanted to say Sorry to hear about losing one! Hope you figure it out soon!! Missi
about the dead one and i might have some advice about the spitting one. You might be holding her to tight and shes vomiting up the water shes been drinking. sometimes a bird will do that if shes nervous or scared though.
So sorry about the loss of your little one. As for the other one spitting up water, make sure when you hold them that you don't hold them across the crop or put pressure on it (as you're looking at the chicken from the FRONT, the crop will be toward your LEFT). Also, you might want to put off holding them if you know they've just been drinking or eating. Welcome to BYC, by the way!
Thanks you guys. She's fine now. I think she was just very nervous. I think I would be if someone came in and took one of my sisters away and then ate her (meaning the cat, not us). They are about 9 wks old now, and outside in their run in a small chicken hutch. I am looking forward to building them an enclosed run with nesting boxes and all, but for now, they are enjoying the run and being able to scratch to their hearts delight! We lost another one last week to a friends dog.... which was much more trumatic than the cat. You can read about it here: http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/2010/07/dog-sitting-tragedy.html This batch has been much harder than the last. I am not sure why... but it seems that with more animals, comes more animal complications. Sigh.... I am happy to say that it seems that my daughter got the closure she needed and is doing much better with loosing her pet this week than she was at first. She is also VERY careful about making sure they are put up and night, and never doing anything that would cause them harm. Which was a good lesson... although a very hard one. BLessings, Val