chickens and long grass

[Bronnie]

for those new to chicken owning, please don't give your girls long grass to eat. it can get caught in their crop and wind around and around and result in impacted crop. then you need to get vege oil down their throat and massage it out, else the chook needs surgery or will die. and may die with surgery

i've discovered lots of stuff about chooks this week. suck as they need their water changed daily or else they can suffer water algae poisoning.

the reason i've done so much research is because we've been caring for the young, second rooster from school. he's here at the moment, quite happy now. he went from being so sick he couldn't lift his head off the ground to feeding himself.

i believe he had a hard thing stuck in his throat, which is now in his crop. i'm hoping it is food he couldn't get down, otherwise it might damage his insides or worse as it tries to get through his system.

i spoon fed and watered him sun and mon and tues, and today he ate and drank by himself! i've been massaging his crop to try and help there too. i cooked up some rice and quinoa (which he loves) and added some milk. guess what kind of milk i used

so if he continues to get better, on friday afternoon he'll get to go home to his new home, complete with 7 or so girls all of his own (instead of having to watch another rooster be in charge and only getting beaten up by the big rooster). i think the other rooster is his dad, and they're both magnificent birds! here's a pic of the dad, he's in moult at the moment. i do have some pics on the camera of the little guy, of him with yoghurt all over his wattle but i won't embarrass him

[Deesalie]

what a good chicken mum you are

[hanabi]

He got the royal treatment! Must say, I wouldn't want the school rooster to die with me either. You saved the day Bronnie!

Definitely are a good chook mum!

[RubyRoo]

Geez, that's good advice, thanks! We had chooks up until recently, (and are getting more soon), but they never used to really worry about foraging in the long grass....they preferred the lawn grass and the garden beds.

Good on you for being a great rooster nurse....and for giving him such good milk ....I'm sure that was the magic elixir!

Originally Posted by hanabi

Must say, I wouldn't want the school rooster to die with me either

Spare a thought for how we felt when the Year 1 Class' canary died while in our care over the school hols one year....one of our cats got into the room it was in (which we'd been very careful to keep the door closed to), and knocked the cage off the top of a set of drawers, opened the cage door, and managed to get the canary out....happened so quickly, and we arrived to find a couple of yellow feathers on the floor as the only evidence......and of course a very smug looking cat! The class got a good lesson in death, and we bought them a new budgie instead......never have offered to look after another school pet since!

[bunty]

Thanks for the tip Bronnie, and I agree, you are a lovely chook mama (as well as a wonderful mama to your human babies ).