New Pet Chicken Owner

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Limpin Nugget

Chirping
Sep 5, 2020
25
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Hello Everyone! It's nice to meet you all and hopefully you can all impart some knowledge and help me during times of difficulties hahaha...

We got our pet chicken during quarantine when the egg vendor's weekly visit in our house said that one of the eggs hatched due to overstocking.
We find it hilarious and my sister made a passing joke that she would like to have the chick. The following week, the vendor came back with it and we just decided to keep her since no one would take care of her.

Now, we have zero knowledge of taking care of chicken. We don't know what to feed her, how to make a proper chicken coop, or any basic knowledge that a chicken owner should know. We just went along with it, googled some questions and bought her chicken food, and basically making a fool of ourselves. And we just confirmed her gender yesterday.

Nugget, is 18 weeks old, acts like a dog, which is a surprise cause I didn't know chickens could be so feisty and sweet. Her diet consist of bugs she eats whenever she's at the garden, vegetables and grass, corn, chicken food, and little amount of bread. We sometimes feed her scrambled egg. Her coop, which is definitely not a proper coop haha, is actually a dog house spacious and kinda lonely I guess, we cover it at evening. She also has zero interaction with other chickens and is only always with us. We are not a good owner but I'm willing to learn and willing to change everything so that she'll live a happy and long life.

Yesterday, she just stood still and started making some noises and my Mom said that she is laying an egg and we put her back in her coop and she's been trying to lay her egg for 17 hours :( Her vent prolapsed and we had to help her get it out. Thankfully we are able to do it. After getting it out, we put her in warm water to clean the prolapse and pushed it back gently. But her vent is still slightly red and has been discharging white substance with little bit of blood. I am highly concerned and alarmed that she might suffer some infections. Will she have difficulty pooping? What can you recommend we do. (Big thanks to casportpony for helping us)


Also, what is the proper food for hens and how do we make a proper coop? She's back to being energetic, like nothing happened but I'm still worried.
We lived in a subdivision, our country has strict lockdown regulations, pet care isn't really much in our country so we have no vet nearby, and we're reaaaaalllly novice. Hopefully, light will be shed on us and will gain more knowledge through your help.
Thank you very much!!!! :D
 
Cucumbers are great for chickens. Lots of health benefits and works as a natural dewormer. Apple cider vinegar is great to add to their water. It helps with digestion and helps keep the water clean! Chickens are flock animals and really yours should have a friend. They are very social. I really hope you consider getting one more! As far as egg health feeding crushed oyster shells helps with strong egg shells so she safely lays eggs. Layer feed has more calcium. Do not feed any citrus to your chickens. It can cause soft eggs shells which is really bad. Make sure their bedding or house is cleaned regularly and their waterer is also cleaned of any slime build up. They can get really sick from bacteria
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
I would put her on a stricter diet offering her a complete chicken feed containing 18-20% protein with oyster shell on the side in a separate container. I would not feed extra corn and no bread at all. The only time I feed breed is when I am giving a dose of liquid medication.
Congratulations on getting the prolapse back in.
You can visit our Coop Articles pages to find ideas on a new coop to build her.
Once that is done, you can look at adding a few more birds to giver her some friends.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC! :frow

Egg binding and prolapse usually happens if they aren't getting enough calcium to put on a hard shell and or dehydration so make sure she is offered oyster shell, a good layer feed and fresh water changed daily. You can get the layer feed and oyster shell at your nearest feed store that sells chicken supplies.

As for the prolapse, you don't want her laying for a while, so you need to reduce her light to about 8 or 9 hours a day, the rest darkness. This will probably send her into a molt, but this will stop the laying too. If she tries to lay again, it's all going to come back out, it needs to heal.

Good luck with your girl and welcome aboard!
 
TwoCrows said:
Hello there and welcome to BYC! :frow

Egg binding and prolapse usually happens if they aren't getting enough calcium to put on a hard shell and or dehydration so make sure she is offered oyster shell, a good layer feed and fresh water changed daily. You can get the layer feed and oyster shell at your nearest feed store that sells chicken supplies.

As for the prolapse, you don't want her laying for a while, so you need to reduce her light to about 8 or 9 hours a day, the rest darkness. This will probably send her into a molt, but this will stop the laying too. If she tries to lay again, it's all going to come back out, it needs to heal.

Good luck with your girl and welcome aboard!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your advice. Will definitely do that.
 

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