I have a speckled Sussex pullet who's about 9 weeks old.
Sadly her and her flock's run is still in construction, so all 11 of them live in a large dog crate and spend all day every day outside in the cage when weather permits. When they are inside, aka when weather is bad or the night, I like to give them black soldier flies and other treats.
I mainly give bsfl in my hand, and other kinds of treats and edible enrichment in bowls. Anyway SS is the only one, that ever since she was a little chick, would STAND IN THE BOWL/hand)feeder SHES EATING FROM, SPILL IT EVERYWHERE, AND GENERALLY CAUSE ABSOLUTE HAVOC. When I am feeding them bsfl, I always feed it right from my hand. It was fine up to maybe 4 weeks old, Even with her flying and hopping on my arm every time.
Now that she's older, I just CANT STAND IT anymore. Every single time I give them black soldier fly larvae from my hand, (it's their favorite food) she, unlike every other civilized chick in her flock, will aggressively hop onto my arm/hand to eat it. The problem isn't her enthusiasm to the food. It's her extremely razor sharp claws. For some reason out of all 11 chicks she has to be the one with the sharp claws.
Every single time I give her and her flock any type of food that's not from their growers feeder, she always stand on it, tips it over, gets poop all over it, etc. Unfortunately, my arm and hands are also victim to this
.
I know she doesn't have bad intentions, but WHAT CAN I DO to stop myself from injuring my self every time I want to give them treats???
The thing is, She's VERY hard to handle, also the only chick in the flock who will kick scream and flap her wings so hard that I often get even more scratches from trying to handle her. Therefore clipping her claws isnt really an option. What should I do?
Here's a photo of her, and my arm after feeding them from my hand today. I even caught a photo of her red handed (red footed??) in the food I was giving her, showing she's been doing this since the tender age of 5 days old) I know the scratches in that photo don't look that bad, but keep in mind that she is the only one who single handedly caused all of these scratches, within less than half a second. Also I know from experience that when I wake up tomorrow, it's going to look pretty bad. It's stinging really bad right now...
Sadly her and her flock's run is still in construction, so all 11 of them live in a large dog crate and spend all day every day outside in the cage when weather permits. When they are inside, aka when weather is bad or the night, I like to give them black soldier flies and other treats.
I mainly give bsfl in my hand, and other kinds of treats and edible enrichment in bowls. Anyway SS is the only one, that ever since she was a little chick, would STAND IN THE BOWL/hand)feeder SHES EATING FROM, SPILL IT EVERYWHERE, AND GENERALLY CAUSE ABSOLUTE HAVOC. When I am feeding them bsfl, I always feed it right from my hand. It was fine up to maybe 4 weeks old, Even with her flying and hopping on my arm every time.
Now that she's older, I just CANT STAND IT anymore. Every single time I give them black soldier fly larvae from my hand, (it's their favorite food) she, unlike every other civilized chick in her flock, will aggressively hop onto my arm/hand to eat it. The problem isn't her enthusiasm to the food. It's her extremely razor sharp claws. For some reason out of all 11 chicks she has to be the one with the sharp claws.
Every single time I give her and her flock any type of food that's not from their growers feeder, she always stand on it, tips it over, gets poop all over it, etc. Unfortunately, my arm and hands are also victim to this
. I know she doesn't have bad intentions, but WHAT CAN I DO to stop myself from injuring my self every time I want to give them treats???
The thing is, She's VERY hard to handle, also the only chick in the flock who will kick scream and flap her wings so hard that I often get even more scratches from trying to handle her. Therefore clipping her claws isnt really an option. What should I do?
Here's a photo of her, and my arm after feeding them from my hand today. I even caught a photo of her red handed (red footed??) in the food I was giving her, showing she's been doing this since the tender age of 5 days old) I know the scratches in that photo don't look that bad, but keep in mind that she is the only one who single handedly caused all of these scratches, within less than half a second. Also I know from experience that when I wake up tomorrow, it's going to look pretty bad. It's stinging really bad right now...
