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I don’t want to jinx it, but no one shit on the floor this week!!!
Scruffy just got the all clear on his bloodwork. Three months ago there was a concern for kidney failure. (He’s 6). He’s my buddy, my shadow. He just drinks and pees a lot now I guess. I’ve been exhausted this week and he’s been a snuggle bunny while I rest up. <3
Getting older. The cat sleeps even more, and the dog is arthritic and losing eyesight. Both are in good health otherwise, and happy to have more people around in the summer.
Awww senior pets warm my heart so much. I have an eighteen year old that is mostly blind and half deaf but has so much energy and today she pranced on the grass for a bit just like when she was a young fluffy pup. I love my girl to bits.
Sassy. Which is essentially the norm for a spoiled rotten chicken.
Like, this little hen will scold you for not giving her treats fast enough. And that’s when you’re literally pulling them from a bag and handing them directly to her with no delay
It’s kinda weird. I always liked birds, but never felt I could care for one properly. I would never have thought of having a chicken as anything but dinner. But now? I’m not sure what in the hell I’ll do without her.
I didn’t want more animals after my dog died. I was done with losing companions.
But there was a chicken down the road that needed a home, and we were that only ones available. So we got the first bird. Thought it was a hen (it wasn’t), but keeping one chicken isn’t good for them, they kinda need company. So, we got another one.
The rooster is pretty big, and very much a punk lol. He beat the crap out of a dog twice his size a few weeks back. But he ain’t really a pet. He’s a chicken that shares space with us, he wasn’t socialized well before we got him.
But this hen? She was hand raised before us, and was a cuddly little thing for the first few months. Now, she’s all grown up and thinks she’s the boss. She isn’t cuddly, but she insists on being right beside me when she’s inside. Yeah, an inside chicken part time. Only in the evening for a few hours, but still. And she’s gotta be on or beside one of us, usually me.
She used to lay on my chest and nest in my beard when she was still tiny. She would trill and purr until she’d go to sleep.
Like, how the hell did this happen?
And, we now have another hen. Damn thing just showed up in the yard one day with some chicks and started eating. The dog our rooster beat the crap out of killed the chicks before I could get out there.
But the hen stayed around. She’s tiny. Our first hen is a marans, which aren’t big birds. The volunteer hen is maybe half her size. The volunteer is a feral chicken, one of the few dozen that roam the area. But she’s chill. She’ll hang out with us as long as we don’t try and touch her, just clucking and doing that sweet little trill/purr thing they do.
So now we’ve got three, and I’m fairly confident that the whole “chicken math” meme isn’t actually a joke, it’s an inevitability.
I knew about the cat distribution system, but chicken distribution system? That sounds so random lol. My kid has wanted a hen for years but we are suburb dwellers and I am afraid of having a chicken indoors. Do you have any tips on how to deal with a hen indoors? I really liked your story, especially the bit about the beard nesting.
Well, if you haven’t ever dealt with birds, they’re all messy. Feathers everywhere, they strew their food everywhere, and poop is a reality.
That being said, pads and a bit of early attention can help reduce/eliminate the poo factor from being a problem. Chickens give a little sign before they poop. It’s kind of a tail lift. If you can identify that, you can move them to a spot you want them to go, then reward them when they do.
It is not easy. But our hen hasn’t missed a pad in a while, other than not aiming well enough. Which is saying that it won’t be perfect, but I’ve never run across anything other than the big parrots that will get close to perfect poop training.
They can also be loud. Lots of trills and purrs and sweet little clucks for sure, but there’s squawks, growls and screeches too. Not as loud as some birds, but they’re never fully quiet.
But really, that’s the bad. That’s as bad as it gets. Our hen just runs around after us, or sits with us while she preens most of the time. The poop issue, it’s maybe once an hour, and only large first thing in the morning. The noise is mostly in the morning too, since she sleeps in a small coop with the door closed. Basically a rabbit hutch with a more bird friendly ramp.
They’re super cheap to feed. Maybe 40 bucks every three months or so for all three of ours. We use layer feed for all of them, even the rooster. Extra for treats, like seed or insects, but they’ll gladly finish off fruits and veggies that would otherwise be wasted. Have to read up on the stuff they can’t have though.
Like, right now, it’s not quite 10 pm here, and our pet hen is on the arm of the couch next to me, trilling in her sleep, and has been for about a half hour. They sleep as soon as it’s dark, so just dimming the lights and giving them a quiet space means they’re not any kind of problem at night at all. She had hopped over to her poop pad just before snuggling up next to me an hour or so ago. I’ll get her into her coop here in a bit, and she’ll barely wake up for it usually.
Now, you have to look into breeds. Unlike with cats and dogs, adopting an inside chicken is very unlikely to end well. You want hand raised pet chickens that are well socialized. And different breeds are prone to different behavior ranges. Marans are noted for being even tempered and friendly. Something like a leghorn tends to be a little less human oriented by default, even when well socialized. There’s all different sizes from tiny enough to fit in one hand as an adult, up to the big brahmas that are massive.
Seriously, I would have never thought an indoor chicken could work. I grew up with family that farmed, so the chickens I had known were all working girls. Messy, extra loud, not interested in human company beyond food. We got our hen in the winter when she was a week or two past the age she could be transferred, but her plumage wasn’t ready for cold. So she was an inside bird all the way for the first three months. By the end of that, we didn’t want her outside lol. It’s better for them to have yard time, so we didn’t keep her in all the time, but she’s fit into our family better than I would have even dared imagine.
I wouldn’t recommend it for young kids, say under about 12. Chickens aren’t fond of being grabbed and petted heavily even with the sweetest of them, and the younger kids tend to want exactly that from them. But if the kid can understand that they’ll keep you company, but aren’t really fond of petting regularly, it works fine. My kid was 15 when we got the hen, and no issues. My niece was 12, the neighbor kids were 10 and 12. They all listened and it was fine. The one kid that didn’t listen was 8 and had to be told to leave her alone instead of trying to play with her like a dog, chasing and such.
So, yeah, that’s what I can think of offhand. If you have questions, I love talking about her lol.
I just wish she was small enough to still nest in my beard :)
Thank you for the very detailed answer. I can tell you have being taking good care of your birds as you speak so fondly of them.
I will show my child your answer so they can read all the implications that you so kindly shared and maybe have a talk about what having a pet chicken entails.
I would add that chickens are somewhat dusty birds - it comes from their dander. So if you don’t already have a good one I’d invest in an air purifier.
Also in addition to marans, buff orpingtons are called the golden retriever of chickens for a reason. Very sweet and easy going. I miss my Tillie bird
I should have gotten up to put dinner together 15 minutes ago, but our big orange cat is snugged up against me…
The kitten I found inside a car engine at work a month ago is doing ok other than she farted on me 3 times today, and I’m not excited about it. I’m also trying to find anyone near me who will take her cuz I can’t afford to keep her much longer.
Today there were two cats fighting on my neighbour’s roof. My own two cats looked at the fight with dilated pupils, duster-looking tails, from behind a glass door. With Siegfrieda staring alternately the two cats and me, then timidly meowing, as if saying “can’t you fix this?” (Sorry Zizi, I can’t.) And Kika eventually getting bored and going back to her cardboard box.
I know one of the roof fighters, by the way. Same owner as that roof. Extra cute; fluffy, all black coat, friendly towards humans… and extra hostile towards other cats. She used to play with Zizi as a kitten, until she fell sick and spent two days in the hospital. When she was back, her behaviour towards other cats went from wine to water.
A second neighbour - a crazy cat lady - is considering to steal that roof fighter. If she does it… well, I know nothing, I saw nothing, the roof fighter’s current owner clearly doesn’t care, the cat is often fighting but still outdoors 90% of the time. The crazy cat lady has a thousand flaws, but at least she loves her critters.
Speaking on Kika and her cardboard box: she’s still behaving like a spoiled 16yo kitten. Including night zoomies and her loud 3 AM “I hunts! I hunts! Come, see it!” meows. Pawing us for attention, as if saying “excuses? I is here!”, just to run back to her cardboard box. (She’s slowly destroying it, and spreading bits of that box everywhere.) It’s weird how needy she gets in the winter without caring about the cold itself.
Might as well share pictures
“As now I am become Hunter, Destroyer of Cardboard Boxes” Kika, in her box before destruction:
ZiziSisiedie OrkinPipipidaArschkopfScheißchenThe Cat with a Thousand NamesSiegfrieda:
Fast asleep in the sun on the floor near my bed. I’m finishing my coffee and then I’ll get up and get him breakfast but he’s in no hurry so neither am I.
I’ve got to head out to lunch in an hour so he’ll be a bit sad but will likely sleep through the ordeal in the sun in the loungeroom.
Hazel had knee surgery on her left hind leg a month ago, so we went in for follow-up x-rays. Turns out this silly girl somehow broke her RIGHT hind leg in the meantime. No idea how, she doesn’t seem to be in pain or uncomfortable. It’s her tibia. The vet said there is nothing to do, just let it heal. 🤦♀️
Neighborhood cats have been coming inside and eating our cats’ food. There’s easy access to the house via the cat door. I don’t mind, the food they eat is cheap enough, but these are male cats and have been spraying here and there, maybe even inside the house… one at least is definitely spraying in a shed that won’t close properly.
I’m thinking of befriending them and taking them into the vet for a little ‘operation.’ There’s a local plan that neuters feral cats for free. I think it would help the entire neighborhood. Fewer fights and whatnot. Just need to make sure they don’t actually belong to someone first.
Oh, and a cat pissed in my backpack `:| Hopefully I got the scent out. But now I’m paranoid about everything I own, and unwilling to leave the house for too long…
good
