Amelise
Songster
I have a hen and I don’t think she is eating her feed. Here’s the situation:
I recently got her back and she’s living in an 18sq ft (not including roosting and nesting area) coop. We are arranging to get more hens as soon as we can. We give her fruits and veggie scraps everyday which she loves to eat (and finishes all of them quite quickly). She also eats bugs and some kinds of scratch. However, I have a sneaking suspicion she’s not eating her feed and I’m a little worried.
Back where she’s been living for the past years, I’m pretty sure my family members did not refill her feeder routinely so it emptied out and stayed empty often. But, she foraged a lot and was given fruits and veggies daily. Is she picky now?
She’s definitely underweight. I can feel her keel easily so I’m kind of worried for her health. We’ve had her for a little over a week now and she was laying regularly but now she hasn’t layed for the past 3 mornings. My Mom gave her bird seed yesterday to try to put some weight on her. She ate all of it.
Her poop looks normal and she drinks water regularly. (A lot of her poops are watery, but no worms, no dirty butt, just normal poops with water around them.)
She acts normal, for the most part. We’re really busy so we try to give her things for enrichment in the coop, and I let her out for about and hour daily to scratch around in the backyard. She is happy and scratches around like normal.
Yesterday, she would leave the coop, which she is usually really eager to do. She puffed up (not with her feathers but by turning her body sideways) and she got angry when I tried to touch her. I sat outside anyways to see if she would come out and follow me but instead she made alarm noises. She was looking at a specific place in the garage (nothing there?), but she’s been living in there for almost 2 weeks now and has not been scared of any of the objects in there. What do you guys think? Could something be wrong with her or should I just keep an eye on her?
I recently got her back and she’s living in an 18sq ft (not including roosting and nesting area) coop. We are arranging to get more hens as soon as we can. We give her fruits and veggie scraps everyday which she loves to eat (and finishes all of them quite quickly). She also eats bugs and some kinds of scratch. However, I have a sneaking suspicion she’s not eating her feed and I’m a little worried.
Back where she’s been living for the past years, I’m pretty sure my family members did not refill her feeder routinely so it emptied out and stayed empty often. But, she foraged a lot and was given fruits and veggies daily. Is she picky now?
She’s definitely underweight. I can feel her keel easily so I’m kind of worried for her health. We’ve had her for a little over a week now and she was laying regularly but now she hasn’t layed for the past 3 mornings. My Mom gave her bird seed yesterday to try to put some weight on her. She ate all of it.
Her poop looks normal and she drinks water regularly. (A lot of her poops are watery, but no worms, no dirty butt, just normal poops with water around them.)
She acts normal, for the most part. We’re really busy so we try to give her things for enrichment in the coop, and I let her out for about and hour daily to scratch around in the backyard. She is happy and scratches around like normal.
Yesterday, she would leave the coop, which she is usually really eager to do. She puffed up (not with her feathers but by turning her body sideways) and she got angry when I tried to touch her. I sat outside anyways to see if she would come out and follow me but instead she made alarm noises. She was looking at a specific place in the garage (nothing there?), but she’s been living in there for almost 2 weeks now and has not been scared of any of the objects in there. What do you guys think? Could something be wrong with her or should I just keep an eye on her?
I will get that set up today
