Pet Cornish X chat thread

Weeg

Enabler
Jul 1, 2020
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Small town in Western Washington
My Coop
My Coop
Hey guys!
I know I've seen a few of you out there who own pet Cornish X. Most of the time by accident, but you have made it work.
I purposefully bought 15 Cornish X, am culling 13, and keeping 2 as pets. They're between 3-4 weeks old today, and I have separated them, and am restricting feed. I fed the whole flock 18% protein chick starter for the first 3 weeks, so then I could sex them.
The rest of the information on my journey with Doodle and Smudge is in this thread- https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/experimenting-with-a-few-meat-birds-as-pets.1449592/

Tell me about your pets! Were they an accident? How do you keep them thin? Do you have any special strategies or tips?
Share pictures, stories can questions. I can't wait to meet your rescued hens!
 
Right now, at 3-4 weeks, I have them on 18% chick starter, at 3 oz a chick a day. Thats 3/8 cup morning and night. I have the other 13 outside in a chicken tractor with a heat lamp. The coop is elevated 2ish feet off the ground, maybe a bit higher, and the heat and feed is up there, but grass and water on the bottom, so they have to move around through out the day to get to what they want.
They came to me at different ages, so 3 of them still only have half their feathers.
Doodle and Smudge have a brooder in our shop for separation. I feed them in the morning and refill the others feeder, then put the others feeder on top of the coop after they have eaten all morning, and let Doodle and Smudge out in the Tractor. I then bring them in, and put the feeder back down. I'll post pics of them in a bit!
 
how did you choose who to keep?
I picked two females that seemed to be about the same age. They didn't have much personality yet when they were all trapped in the brooder they were out growing.
Now that they are separated, Doodle and Smudge are pretty sweet! When I twiddle my fingers they come running hoping for food! Lol!

With Doodle, I pulled her out on the car ride home and her, and a different female rode in my lap the whole way. I marked her immediately, and then Smudge I leg banded because I wasn't 100% sure if she was a female. We got them when they were a few weeks old, the feed store had had them for a while.
 
ah gotcha, i didn't know if you chose the slowest growing, or what
I was watching Smudge and noticed at the time she wasn't as crazy for the feeder as the others. That could have been a one time thing or what, but she also loved to do these random side ways jumps. She would randomly get super crazy, and jump side ways, flap her wings, and zoom about a few inches over, haha! I noticed her do that once and leg banded her.
 

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