training chicks to be inside pets

[yab]

those links are quite helpful..and confirmed that perhaps it should just remain a wishful thought.. i've got 5 very territorial cats and two dogs.. i doubt they would enjoy having to share the living space with something that cackles

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

i have one BO that LOVES being inside the house. I think she prefers it actually.
She jumps from the coop and runs up the path to the house ever time we open the door. Inside she walks around the first floor like the cats do. Meaning like she owns the place.
The 3 cats and the dog, a Border Collie, dont mess with her or any of the girls when they are in.
IMHO they are no more a problem than keeping parrots or such. Heck I had an iguana that was more work than the chickens are. meaner too

 

[Akane]

It's not so much training as acclimating. Once they are used to the house and not scared of everything they are quite content to stay indoors and run around. In fact given the option my bantams do not leave the house and barely leave the coop. They have plenty of space and entertainment so they are quite happy indoors. My house chickens get far more enrichment and greens over winter than the chickens in the coop. They get most of my leftovers, random toys, allowed to roam with diapers on, and they don't have to worry about frostbite. Provided you give them enough space and entertainment chickens can be just as happy if not more so inside as outside.

So far it's not really any different than when I kept rabbits or guinea pigs in the house. The minimum space now required by the aspca for such animals is 5sq ft of cage space and most who keep them as pets suggest several hours minimum of floor time running loose in at least one room of the house. I just modified my 3x6' guinea pig cage to hold chickens with 3 levels (it's over 5' tall now) and got the diapers so I can let them out daily. In better weather they can also take over the guinea pigs' place in my 100sq ft herb garden. I set up removeable fencing panels around all the plots and individual plants so I could turn guinea pigs loose in various areas to trim for me. With some netting over the top it will work for small chickens too. They seem as happy as any other indoor pet and their care isn't any greater.

 

[Cara]

Chickens require direct sunlight to produce Vitamin D. If hens don't have this, they will develop deficiencies and their eggs will also be deficient in other key nutrients. Direct contact with the ultra-violet rays of the sun enables chickens to produce within themselves the necessary vitamin D, enabling them to make the best use of their feed. This vitamin is necessary to prevent rickets in growing chicks and to prevent a condition often known as egg paralysis that accompanies the production of soft shelled eggs in laying birds.

Other than the physical problems living indoors can cause, it does not provide for the expression of natural behaviors such as foraging and dust bathing. Diapers are no answer. With the vast amounts of poop chickens produce, you'd either be changing them out every 2 minutes. Whether you do or don't, the bird is still going to need frequent bathing to remove the caked on poop.

And even if the bird's needs aren't of paramount importance to you, your own health should be. Birds can and do carry some pretty unpleasant diseases, and prolonged inhalation of their dander is quite hazardous.

 

[WildBurroShirts.com]

Quote:
Wow. So, if they're 5 weeks old and in a rabbit cage right in front of a window...is that enough vitamin D/sunshine? It's twenty degrees here right now.

Last week it was 50+ and I put them out in the dog's kennel for an hour and a half...when I went to get them they looked like bird statues, all huddled up for warmth and puffed out.

And...what is prolonged inhalation? More than a month?

 

[MissJames]

Quote:
That's what I tell everyone...it's my therapy. Nothing like a few hens craweling up in your lap

 

[Akane]

With the vast amounts of poop chickens produce, you'd either be changing them out every 2 minutes. Whether you do or don't, the bird is still going to need frequent bathing to remove the caked on poop.

Diapers are not like baby human diapers. They have a pouch so the poop falls away from the bird and can hold about a cup worth. In 8hours my 2 bantams didn't even half fill it and are perfectly clean. Cleaner than they were staying in the coop. It can also hold an egg if laid.


The problems you mention could be said of absolutely any pet kept indoors. Yet we still do it to many animals. If these conditions are not good enough for a chicken they are not good enough for any small pet or indoor cats. Everyone needs sunlight, vit d, and exercise. In the wild a rabbit or guinea pig would range a large area foraging. A hamster has been known to cover an entire mile in a night. We cage these animals in a much smaller area even when compared to size than a bantam chicken. We could also say that livestock like horses and goats aren't kept properly because they are often not given large pastures to forage in and forced to eat mostly hay or kept in stalls and only exercised a few times a day. Where exactly do you draw the line?

As for human health again the same can be said of any pet. Any animal can get diseases. Any animal can cause allergies. Many keep pets despite allergies and risks of sinus infections because they provide more mental benefits and sometimes even more health benefits than they cause.


The only difference here is that a chicken is not thought of as an indoor pet. Otherwise all the arguments can be placed on any animal.​

 

[yab]

majority of people, when they see a chicken, they either think of a bucket of wings or "disease". they don't understand that with a little hygeine and proper care, they can be beneficial like cats or dogs... what i'd like to know.. where do you guys get the chicken diapers?!

 

[jossanne]

I have a house chicken. I don't want to have a house chicken. She's my favorite, and I don't feel like I have much choice in the matter at this point.

She's a white polish, and she got her head picked bald and bloody back in, um... October? Quite a while back. I put her in a wire kennel inside the coop, and the others kept picking her head through the cage. I tried all kinds of other options, and nothing was satisfactory, so she moved into the house in a diaper.

I got her all healed up, took her outside for the day, and she seemed fine. She was timid and unsure of herself, but they all left her alone. After 3 or 4 days, though, her head had a picked, bloody spot again.

I moved her in with the 11wk bantam cochins and BR packing peanuts, thinking she'd be okay in there. It seemed like the solution until this weekend when she moved back into the house, with her head picked bloody again. I'm thinking it was the roosters who were the culprits, and when they go to the stewpot in March she can move back out with the bantam cochins. Wish me luck!

I'm tired of changing chicken diapers!

But she is quite happy in the house. She has made friends with the dogs, and follows me or them around the house for company. She doesn't like it when it's time to change her diaper liner, but she deals with it ok.

I hope someday she can grow some courage and move back out, at least with the banties.

 

[SpottedCrow]

Slifer was more than happy to be inside and flop in front of the heater or the airconditioner...And when a Brahma flops, she certainly flops LOL!

It's also easier if you have bantams. I have standards and it's still not bad.

I'm a cardiac patient with asthma and prone to pneumonia and since I've had chickens, I've had maybe 2 asthma attacks and no pneumonia.

Chickens are quieter than parrots and a heckuva lot less expensive.