Poultry pampering?

[auntsuzie1946]

I have come across articles in various places with subjects like "trimming chicken toenails" and "bathing your duck or chicken". I have heard of wing trimming and even oiling legs. (Oiling legs?!)

So who pampers or even just does bird maintenance? What do you do and why?

 

[auntsuzie1946]

I don't trim wings anymore since my 4 are perfectly content to stay in my yard during the day and they are locked up at night. I have never trimmed nails or oiled legs??!! I did have one I had to bathe because of a dirty butt and she was ill.

 

[Floridachicks3403]

I have come across articles in various places with subjects like "trimming chicken toenails" and "bathing your duck or chicken". I have heard of wing trimming and even oiling legs. (Oiling legs?!)

So who pampers or even just does bird maintenance? What do you do and why?

Best way to “bathe” a chicken is to make a good dusting place for them. I’m in N Fl., very sandy here, easy for them to find good dusting places in the yard.

 

[My 3 chix]

I have come across articles in various places with subjects like "trimming chicken toenails" and "bathing your duck or chicken". I have heard of wing trimming and even oiling legs. (Oiling legs?!)

So who pampers or even just does bird maintenance? What do you do and why?

Oiling legs of chickens kills the scaley leg mites that get under their scales of their legs. Smothers em. Bathing with water is sometimes necessary if they get in a terrible mess. Say if a soft egg is “accidentally” cracked and has gotten on their face and body. It’s also a good time to give a once over to check for lice or mites. The fewer chickens you have the easier this is. I use a hair drier if they get a chill and it’s not hot outside. I feel like a clean chicken is less likely to have parasites issues. They feed on the shaft of the feathers, dander. But it is equally important to let them dust bathe.

 

[ChickEngineer]

I am a toenail trimmer and my husband is always making fun of me. 2 of mine have nails that grow long and start to curl but the others don’t. We have dog nail trimmers that I use and they sound like we’re killing them the entire time. Afterwards, they settle fast and get rewarded with treats.

We use a dog nail trimmer also. We have had Ameraucanas and Australorps, only one Ameraucana has had to have her nails trimmed, I hold her and the wife does the trimming.

 

[centrarchid]

The toe nail clipping and oiling may be needed to compensate for keeping birds confined where they do not naturally wear back claws and face high external parasite loads.