people with house chickens

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:

Aw! What a cute story. Lulu sounds like my Olive. She loves being carried around, cuddled and taking naps in my lap. She's missing a foot so when she goes through the effort of hobbling over to me for a cuddle - how can I refuse??!?

 

[PinkieSue]

"Feathermommie: I at one point had an opossum that lived in my home as a pet. Cleanest animal I have ever taken care of. Did I get mumbles and ewwws? You bet I did!"

Thank you for your input. I appreciate your candor regarding your family of animals. Interesting, I had a possum for almost three years. I lost her this winter. She was great, named Gladys.

Go House Chickens!!

 

[jossanne]

Quote:
Wish I was that lucky! Maybe it's my starter feed, but Trophy's poos smell as bad as the cat's! GAG!

And every time she sits on my lap, she leaves at least two deposits there...

 

[jossanne]

Here's Trophy tonight. She's getting so pretty, but did not want to pose for pictures. She could see the brooder with her little brothers and sisters, and insisted on flying back over there. But you can see her comb in this picture, small with no pink at all. At four weeks old, I'm positive she's a girl. YAY!

 

[jojo54]

Quote:
can we see a pic of your sweetie?

 

[jojo54]

Quote:
what a cutie!!

 

[t4dbirds]

She's a real cutie!

At the moment Fizzle, my black and white frizzle cochin, looks like her tail feathers could be her head. I'm hopping she doesn't grow fluffy head feathers or It's going to be harder to tell which end is up LOL. I'll try to get pictures later but my camera phone does not take the best shots. My real camera doesn't hold a battery charge anymore

 

[VelvetDragon]

I don't have one -- yet! But I really hope to get one. That is, if the idea makes it past my partners.

I have a feeling if I go about it the right way they won't begrudge me my chicken. Hehe.

My recent chicken obsession really started via my African grey parrot, ChuChu. I have had chickens in the past, and absolutely love them, and planned to get them again some day when we move out to the country (some day... sigh!). However, at the avian hospital I take my grey too, two large chickens were in the lobby in carriers, one hen and one roo. ChuChu was FASCINATED. I have never seen her so interested in anything, and I've had her more than 13 years. Her obsession became my obsession. (She of course would not be able to directly interact with any chickens I got... but I know she would love seeing and hearing!)

I've been reading this thread voraciously and absolutely love everyone's pictures! They're so cute! I really want a silkie to be an absolutely spoiled house pet. I used to work with them at the zoo, and they're definitely my favorites. I also like showgirls, so that'd be another I'd be happy with. I'm concerned about being able to buy only one one-day-old female silkie chick, though.

I plan on making an indoor pen that would give her more than 15 square feet. I have the plans drawn up and it will be fairly attractive and very cheap. I hope to give her plenty of outdoor time, as well, but only supervised, so probably not very much in poor weather, because I don't want to sit out there. Heh.

Also, "Livestock, animals and poultry except for housepets" are not allowed in my HOA (though legal in my city). "Housepets" is not defined. I think an "exotic bird from China"

living in my house sometimes wearing diapers qualifies as a housepet! And my dog is allowed in the backyard, so my chicken should be too. Someone in the HOA that I'm not acquainted with even has ducks (I won't tell on him!). However, I have the nosiest, most complaining neighbor ever. He reported us for building an attractive compost bin in the backyard. So that might limit the chicken's outdoor time as well.

So between the nasty neighbor and living in rainy Oregon, I have been thinking about enrichment for indoors, such as astroturf to toss delicious treats onto for scratching, wheatgrass for grazing, and feeder insects like mealworms from the petstore. Any other ideas?

 

[schellie69]

Quote:
I take it things have gotten taken care of with the town and everything allowing you to keep your chickens. I have not been able to find this post for a while so I was worried if you had gotten that taken care of.

 

[t4dbirds]

Quote:
My grey (my avatar) is 16 this year, guess it's time for a car lol. I got him when he was pins and skin, no feathers yet and still being hand fed. I had to be trained to hand feed him to take him home. He talks the the chics as they run past his cage and finds them fun to watch. I don't let him interact directly either. I'm afraid he would decide to bite one so he stays on his cage when they are out. Mine are bantams and smaller than him at this time. I'm not sure if they are going to get much bigger or not.

Both my chicks have fun running and sliding across my hardwood floors and the dogs just hang out on the couch watching, until I drop food on the floor for the chicks then the dogs wake up

. I've been giving mine meal worms and other treats. They had a ton of fun this morning chasing a grape around trying to figure out how to eat it. It's been too rainy here in WA for me to let them outside (personally I don't want to be out in the rain) and with how tiny they are they need someone outside to keep bird of prey away from them. Not to mention neighbor who would see them and she's dating the president of the housing assoc so until they (hopefully) move to his house after marriage I may be able to have them out more!