The chicks have a bit of time out of the dog crate

The chicks have only been in the dog crate for five days but we felt that they were already outgrowing it. Blue and Lemon have been doing a lot of chest bumping and flying at each other and chasing each other around. They are obviously competing for top place. Jasmine takes no notice of it at all. She stays out of it and usually has her head in the food dish.

I was still concerned about the chicks putting their heads through the chicken wire so despite it already being a double layer I decided to add another layer. I had some spare wire so I attached a third layer at the bottom on the outside of their part of the run.

Once I had done this I opened the door to the dog crate. Blue accidentally found the way out and once she had realised she was out she hopped straight back in.

Blue was first out of the dog crate

The chicks showed no sign of wanting to come out and in the end I chased them out.

All three chicks are out

They are not wandering far

You can see from this photo that Blue still has a bare bottom. It has been bare from the day we got her and she still has only a few pins on her bottom.

Lemon was soon heading back in

They didn’t move from this spot until Lemon lead the way back in and the other two followed. They showed no further inclination to leave the dog crate.

I shall leave the door to the crate open when we are at home and give them some time to get used to it like this before removing the crate. I have set up another water bottle on the gate to their part of the run.

I have also started them on grower pellets. I have broken them up a bit to start with and mixed them with the chick crumb. They seem to be eating the pellets so I will gradually withdraw the chick crumb.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to start venturing out and exploring.

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4 Responses to The chicks have a bit of time out of the dog crate

  1. marion.pharo says:

    Looking good.

    • Carol says:

      I left the crate door open all afternoon but they didn’t venture out again. I suppose they feel safe in there and it is going to take time for them to get more adventuress.

  2. David says:

    Brave New World!

    • Carol says:

      Indeed! I am leaving the crate door open all the time now and an extra dish of food outside the crate. It took until midday today before they finally ventured out. Then there was no stopping them and they were in and out all afternoon and explored their new area and investigated the large shelter. Progress!

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