Indoor House Chicken? Silkie.

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Talking with my autistic son about how he really wants to get rid of this puppy. He's starting to resent him, and hate him because he barks sometimes at night. Because he takes a lot of time and energy and cleaning up and walking. Because he wants a LOT of attention. And because he licks, and that's just a "gross feeling".

Trying to figure out an alternate indoor pet. Hamsters still require time and cleaning. Same with cats. Same with any pet, right? And I am NOT getting reptiles! He's terrified of spiders. Then he mentioned Sneezy, his favorite bantam blue silkie that's outdoors. Got me thinking ...

Is it possible to bring Sneezy indoors? And maybe another bantam silkie (girl!) as a friend? What about housing (because we are NOT letting the girls roam free in the house ... I have enough to clean up!). There's an alcove with a small window by our front door where we could build a thin tall indoor chicken coop. Maybe 4 feet wide, 1 1/2 to 2 feet deep, and 5-6 feet tall. Maybe with different levels with ramps, with a single nest-box for the eggs.

Questions:
-Would two indoor silkies cause a lot of chicken/feather dust?
-Would they make a LOT of noise? They don't seem to make much noise outside (the roosters do tho).
-Anybody have an indoor chicken coop? Maybe have pix?

We could set up a 4x4 dog kennel by the front door to let them outside from time to time.

Would this be more trouble than it's worth?

Maybe just keep them outside and let him catch Sneezy when he needs a fuzzy cuddle?

I know I should probably post this on BYC but I value YOUR opinions!

Thoughts?

 

[Denim Deb]

Don't know how it would work for therapy, but I have heard of people litter box training chickens, just don't know how to go about it.

 

[valmom]

I know they also make chicken diapers!

We had one of our chickens, Fido, in the house for one winter. She stayed in the basement, though, in a large dog corral type run with newspapers down and hay to nest in. It actually wasn't too much trouble, and we kept her cleaned up so no smell. If I had another one inside I would figure out how to put my shavings down (I use woody pet sawdust, but any sawdusty-type shavings would work.) That would make it much easier to clean than newspapers. I sift my coop sawdust with a cat litter scoop.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

I can't picture diapers on our silkie, even tho I've seen pix online and such. Not sure I can picture litter-box training a chicken either! My poor little Sneezy, bless her little heart, can barely see to walk with all of that fluff! Even tried to put a baby barrette on her topknot but it just came right out.

Since we need to move the bantams into the garage for the winter anyway (once it starts getting cold which is pretty inconceivable at this very hot moment), so maybe that would be good enough. Close by, but not messing up my house.

 

[pinkfox]

i did actually see a thing online where someone had taken a coffee table and put "walls" on it and a liner on the floor and turned it nto a "house chicken" kennel for one of his favorite hens...she wore a diaper when roaming loose, she was a polish though,
didnt make much noise or mess he just cleaned her crate every day.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

So basically the chicken stayed under the coffee table? I think mine is a little too small for that.

 

[pinkfox]

that was pretty much her "house" but she had acess to all the house when people were home.

 

[freemotion]

We had a crippled hen who lived in the livingroom for two winters, then lived in the fenced back yard all spring/summer/fall, going into the hay storage area of the barn at night or into a small hoophouse, locked up for safety. I will NEVER do it again, although I admit I liked having her in the house. She made the cutest noise for attention.....boop-boop-boop.....and got lots of treats and laid the occasional egg. I never took her out of the cage....wasn't that committed....she was only in the house because she was injured when dh was caring for our first batch of pullets (never found out exactly what happened) and he was adamant that she not be put down.

We had to buy one of those small hand-held battery vacuums (what are they called???) as she was messy, but I just cleaned her crate (dog airline crate set on top of another one so she was close to eye level) by setting her in a box while I used a sandwich baggie as a glove and picked up all the globs of poo. I kept a chunk of apple in there for her to peck at and secured a small container for water and grain on the front of the door. I tied some "toys" to the side of the crate for her to peck at, too. She would boop-boop-boop whenever I made popcorn. Very cute.

Dust? Dunno. We have a woodstove and the house is very dusty until spring.

eta: I say NEVER but if I had a child that it would help, I'd put up with the extra work.

 

[ksalvagno]

I wonder if your son would not like the silkie once it was in the house. If he would have to do the cleanup and all, he may not like it. I would try just letting him hold and pet the silkie outside when he wants to. If you bring him in the house, only do it while your son is paying attention to him. I'm guessing the attention time wouldn't last long so the silkie would only be in the house for short periods of time.