Rescued Roo from next door (now known as Larry) (pics on post #30)

[Fudgie]

Have you tried super glue on the wounds to keep the bleeding down. I am sure he hits them on stuff and pops them open again. Super glue is being used in hospitals instead of stitches now. Just an idea.

 

[seminolewind]

He doesn't seem to have any broken skin, I'm still not quite sure why he has these big patches. But it seems that there are new ones I think he's shedding out. Maybe being a year old he has a system failure that isn't helping much at growing feathers back (?)

 

[CTChickenMom]

Quote:
Cornish Xs are meat birds. Shouldn't they be kept away from the rest of the flock? I read that they should be kept separately from your main flock because they are notoriously slow and aren't really interested in anything but eating.

They will have heart/weight/leg issues because they are breed to be slaughtered at 3-4 months old. At 12 pounds he's likely to be having a hard time. His little frame wasn't meant to carry that much weight.

 

[CTChickenMom]

Good luck with the diet. I hope it increases his life span. You're doing a great thing. Maybe with the diet he'll loose enough weight to be stable. One of the earlier post suggest a heaping half cup a day. My flock (all standard breeds) don't eat 2 cups each per day, it would amount to about 26 cups of feed daily. Do you have cats? Think about what you feed them, the ratio is probably pretty close. My cats do about a 1/3 to 1/2 cup each per day (2 cats weighing 12-16 pounds each).

 

[strawberryfields]

seminolewind,

I had some of those turkeys... the double breasted ones, they did that... they would get holes in their skin - their skin was not as strong as a normal birds - it makes sense that they "outgrow" their skin because they are so bred for massive size. I had to put them down. I felt terrible about it. I swore I would never ever try to keep another meat bird as a pet again (we had originally gotten them for meat, but I kept two out of that batch out of curiosity and to see if I could breed them the following year).

Then my neighbors gave me Gunther and I was planning on putting him in our freezer, but his sweet disposition and activity level won out, especially since he lost his limp. I didn't think I would be able to keep him over the winter but he is doing really well right now.

I don't know if that is what is wrong with Larry.

I generally give him enough food to eat that will last for about an hour or so twice a day, and then I offer him whatever veggies he can eat for the rest of the day, that is if I have them to spare. I like to offer them table scraps within reason.

But generally what I do is, if I can, offer them what ever veggies he will eat... plus the mash in the morning and at night....

With your guy maybe you could give him enough food for about twenty minutes to a half hour and free range on whatever else you can think of... mostly veggies. If you can. It is much harder in the winter because in the summer at least they can get some insects and garden produce.

Two cups seems like a pretty good start

.

 

[seminolewind]

Strawberry, I think you hit the nail on the head! It fits that he is so fat that the feather skin has stretched so far that non feather skin is covering big areas. He's a year old. Now that the neighbor has 2 less roos, I gave him back in return for the hen with the broken leg. He may have not really been picked on where there's bare areas, and they got bigger even here along. I think they need to take him to the feed store so that someone can process him, which may be the best thing for him. He doesn't have any wounds, thank god.

Ctchickenmom, that's for letting me know how much feed a diet would be. I had no idea.

Now I'm moving on to a hen with a broken leg, same neighbor. But I will still be watching Larry, and making sure his life is as good as it can be.

 

[seminolewind]

Update: Larry is doing good. The neighbor said another roo was picking on him so he took that roo to the feed store so Larry could be better. I think that neighbor is finally getting it!

 

[strawberryfields]

I hope so