More of a mud-and-straw bath, really
Oct. 21st, 2011 06:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bokbokosaurusSo:
- Dippy's breath is fine, and I'll give them extra grit and check her crop's empty this morning. I also checked Trex's, in case that was why her crop wasn't filling up, and hers was okay too. I think. I had quite a fight to get her to open her beak; it was one of those jobs where you need at least three arms.
- Trex ate more, though not enough for a totally full crop. No more soft eggs yesterday.
- Put Vaseline on Steg's leg.
- Arky doesn't seem to have thrown up again.
They all seem reasonably okay in themselves. I mean, touch wood. But they're all quite active, and eating and drinking, and no-one's standing around with her eyes shut or her feathers fluffed up. Good signs.
I think Steg has climbed the pecking order to #2, and Trex has dropped to #3.
I went on a small chicken-products shopping spree yesterday. Got corn for winter, wood shavings for the coop floor (still experimenting with different types of bedding), ceramic food bowls, more mixed grit, and a pestle and mortar (local shops only sell pellets, not mash, but the difference is just shape). I couldn't find any calcium supplements locally, so I bought one of those Condition Pek blocks and ground it up and fed them that.
Arky discovered the dust bath. Since day one they've had a cat-litter-tray full of compost and diatomaceous earth, but mostly they've ignored and/or tried to eat it. Yesterday Arky spent a good fifteen minutes rolling around in there, flinging dust up between her feathers. Steg the mad digger came over and started kicking straw around obnoxiously close, and Dippy the top hen came and stood menacingly and pecked her a few times, but Arky wasn't getting out till she was done. She was in chicken spa heaven.
- Dippy's breath is fine, and I'll give them extra grit and check her crop's empty this morning. I also checked Trex's, in case that was why her crop wasn't filling up, and hers was okay too. I think. I had quite a fight to get her to open her beak; it was one of those jobs where you need at least three arms.
- Trex ate more, though not enough for a totally full crop. No more soft eggs yesterday.
- Put Vaseline on Steg's leg.
- Arky doesn't seem to have thrown up again.
They all seem reasonably okay in themselves. I mean, touch wood. But they're all quite active, and eating and drinking, and no-one's standing around with her eyes shut or her feathers fluffed up. Good signs.
I think Steg has climbed the pecking order to #2, and Trex has dropped to #3.
I went on a small chicken-products shopping spree yesterday. Got corn for winter, wood shavings for the coop floor (still experimenting with different types of bedding), ceramic food bowls, more mixed grit, and a pestle and mortar (local shops only sell pellets, not mash, but the difference is just shape). I couldn't find any calcium supplements locally, so I bought one of those Condition Pek blocks and ground it up and fed them that.
Arky discovered the dust bath. Since day one they've had a cat-litter-tray full of compost and diatomaceous earth, but mostly they've ignored and/or tried to eat it. Yesterday Arky spent a good fifteen minutes rolling around in there, flinging dust up between her feathers. Steg the mad digger came over and started kicking straw around obnoxiously close, and Dippy the top hen came and stood menacingly and pecked her a few times, but Arky wasn't getting out till she was done. She was in chicken spa heaven.
