Do you have any instructions on how to make a chicken-diaper?
Also maybe a food reward after you have the diaper on might help encourage Budda to wear it?
I used a youtube.com video and typed
"how to make a chicken diaper" in the search bar.
chickenmom video was the bantam pattern I used because she was the only one at the time that showed how to make one 3 years ago. I see there are a few more video additions by others since then. You may find a pattern you like. I never liked the pre-made chicken diapers at $15 to $20 each and decided to make my own out of scrap chicken-patterned material I had left over from decorating my kitchen. I never felt comfortable that purchashed diapers were going to fit a Silkie properly as their fluffy feathers present a challenge and 2 Silkies can be two different sizes - I had one that weighed 2-lbs and one that weighed 2.5-lbs. Our juvenile Silkie wears a slightly smaller diaper than a fully mature Silkie.
PLEASE watch the youtube videos on making diapers first before reading my post so my notes and instructions will make sense to you.
I did not use velcro because the fluffy Silkie feathers stick to velcro so either large snaps or (only if you are very careful) a large strong safety pin (not the easily bent flimsy ones) to hold the two straps together over the top shoulders (don't sew these shoulder straps together because it will make it harder to get the Silkie into the contraption but I use a large strong safety pin to hold the shoulder straps secure after putting it on). I prefer using safety pins because it makes the straps more easily adjustable as the Silkie grows where permanent snaps sewed on the elastic means having to remove them and re-sew them back on later. I used soft underwear elastic for the straps (not too narrow and not too wide) and it is more comfortable an elastic than material-covered elastic like some of the pre-made purchased diaper designs (the less complicated the design the less to trap fluffy Silkie feathers). Silkie's fluffy feathers pretty much take care of covering up the exposed soft elastic straps. Buy the soft elastic in the color closest to the Silkie's feather color if available (I could only find white but even on our Black Silkie it got covered up by her fluffy feathering and wasn't seen and even the safety pin wasn't visible). Sometimes we pinned too high up on the shoulders and sometimes too low on the back and by watching how the Silkie walked told us whether we needed to reposition the safety pin. I prefer elastic over the shoulders rather than the diapers that have elastic straps going under the Silkie's belly where their toes get tangled as they walk. I cut sandwich baggie tops off and pinned them with a couple very small safety pins (from the outside) to the diaper pouch to catch all the poop - I added heavier janitorial paper towel pieces and scissor cut to fit inside the sandwich baggie and pinned both the baggie and towel to the diapper pouch. It helps to absorb the moisture of the more liquidy poo (
chickenmom used panty liners but I found them too small to be effective) - but I'm sure you'll have your own preferences for the details of your own chicken diapers. I found that I needed to gather the pouch at the back so I used some of the soft elastic to gather a bit of the slack in the pouch - need a sewing machine and some knowledge of sewing elastic on a machine to gather it properly.
Sorry to be so graphic but you DID ask about making diapers LOL Always make sure the vent is adequately covered over securely by the poop pouch. The baggie and paper with the poo are tossed out at end of use. Again some people use velcro to attach the plastic liners but it just didn't work for us with so much Silkie fluff in the way. We pre-made a bunch of trimmed baggies and scissor-cut pieces of paper towels ahead of time and kept the assembled sets in a small decorator chicken box so we could find it easily each day if we didn't put it back in its usual place! If I ever make more of
chickenmom diapers I will use heavy but pliable plastic to sew right into the pouch piece so I don't have to deal with baggies just to see if it makes it any easier for cleanup (although I like the baggies and paper towels to un-pin and then easily dispose the whole baggie full of poop). Also I made the elastic straps two continuous strips like
Dayseykinsaj and used a strong safety pin to attach the straps together at the shoulders instead of with the velcro like
chickenmom. Silkie feathers don't do well around sticky velcro strips.
Because a chicken can poop up to 4 times an hour I don't suggest holding a Silkie while in her diaper. Allowing the Silkie to be petted and touched is okay but lifting the Silkie and setting on someone's lap or holding her can push trapped poop into the Silkie's skin and butt quills or worse come leaking out of the diaper pouch - and face it the smell can be bad on some of the poops. There's relatively no odor on a well secured diaper but touching or pushing the poop pouch can disturb and release some unwanted odor. Don't know how this will work for a therapy chicken that people want to hold and handle so you will have to indicate no holding or sitting on laps and I'm sure therapy patients will understand. After all, just having a cute pet in the vicinity is therapy in itself! Children especially can really be gentle at petting if explained the reason for only touching and not holding a small animal.
The diaper will hold some odor by end of day so must be washed nightly - I used baby shampoo because it is gentler than harsher detergents. I quickly found that one diaper wasn't enough and made an extra for midday change if the Silkie got the runs which can happen especially with fresh produce/fruit given as a treat. We got so used to the routine of diapers for 3 months on our juvenile 3 month old Silkie that my DH was able to handle her changes and nightly butt shampoos and blowdries when I had to be gone a couple of days. My post has little hints that most of the videos don't tell you about so hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions that I missed.
Smiles
