Hi Ponyfeather - newspaper has been in the kennel with our indoor Silkie and she scratches through, shredding it, looking for absolutely nothing! We have about 4 different little Ramakin cups with no-GMO feed, cooked rice, bird seed mix, oyster shell, grit, and her medicated water. A seed treat chicken ball I know would keep her busy but then the seeds will go flying all over the pen floor and all over the room she's in. I can't wait for her to be well enough to go outside. I know she misses her daily dust baths. She's been laying an egg every other day too in her storage box nest.
My hens - bantams and LF - don't get cranky during molt but they do lose a lot of appetite and mope around the coop most of the day. Treats don't hold any interest for them and sometimes the Silkies will sit out their molt in a secluded nestbox. I have to give them no-iron children's Poly-Vi-Sol drop a couple times a week because they don't consume proper nutrition. Molt makes the birds miserable, uncomfortable, itchy, skin sensitive to the touch, so we don't handle them unless absolutely necessary for health maintenance. It's a stressful time for them. My Silkie came down with CRD symptoms from the stress and had to get Baytril injections and then had to treat all the flock with Tylan in their water so no more come down with symptoms and it's worked. The colder temps have stressed all the birds also. It stresses us worrying about the flock but then having pets means having responsibility for them!
