To help a feral cat

On August 1st we decided to take one of the stray outside cats, Benjamin, to the local shelter to have him tested for cat diseases, get shots, de-wormed, de-flead, and lastly, neutered.  A big day was planned for him. 

This was the same shelter where we got the house chicken, Penny.  Penny is doing great living her new life as a chicken, by the way.

We have gotten so many stray cats outside and Benjamin was fighting with them all as he wasn't fixed.  Benji, as I call him, was a sweet boy.  He would let us pet him if it meant he was going to get food.  But other than a random pet, he was a wild, feral cat.  We planned on getting this work done to him and then releasing him back outside.  Unless we could find a home for him, of course.

So Randy teased him with canned cat food on that fateful Tuesday morning, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and ran him inside the house to the waiting cat carrier in the hallway.  If we took the cat carrier outside there's no way Benji would have come near us, with something odd like a cat carrier sitting outside.

But of course, Benji escape from the carrier before we could close the door.  He ran around the front of the house, crashing into windows at full force trying to get out.  Finally he was captured, thrown into the carrier, and toted off to the shelter.

We learned that he had no diseases, and he was quite young, still was a teenage cat.  Somehow they said he had no fleas nor signs of worms, but was treated for both anyway.  He got his shots and neutering.  Randy picked him up about 3pm and was told he would be groggy but awake.  Randy dropped off the carrier into the bathroom that I setup as a temporary home for Benjamin.  I had a litter box, 3 towels folded up the floor into a bed, and food and water dishes ready.  Randy took the door off the cat carrier and set the carrier in the bathroom.  He didn't want to scare the cat more by dumping him out, but decided to let him walk out on his own.  Randy had to leave, and I came home about 3 hours later to find the cat still wadded up in the back of the carrier. 

I talked to Benji, but he wouldn't look at me.  Finally I reached into the cat carrier, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and pulled him out in a heap.  He was all stiff and hot and breathing shallow.  I put his stiff body onto the towels.  He didn't move, didn't acknowledge or even look at me, but started quivering.  I petted him and talked quietly to him.  The quivering turned into full shaking.  It was weird that he wouldn't look at me, he kept his head averted.  As you can see, he would not look at me, so you can't see his beautiful, big, yellow eyes in these photos. 

After a few hours I was concerned about Benji.  He was so stiff, all his muscles were tightened and shaking.  I tried to get him to eat some canned cat food, but he wouldn't open his mouth.  Finally, by 9pm, I was downright worried.  I put some canned cat food on a teaspoon and forced the spoon into his mouth.  He ate it without a fight.  I fed him two more teaspoons of food.  At least he had some food in his stomach. 

The vet have us 4 oral syringes of Tramadol 50mg (pain medicine) for Benjamin, with instructions to give him one orally every 12 hours.  I thought maybe he was in terrible pain after his surgery.  Maybe that's why he was shaking?  I quickly gave him one of the syringes, he didn't fight at all and drank the medicine.  He was still in the stiff quivering state.  However, then he started foaming at the mouth terribly!  I grabbed a new roll of paper towels and started wiping foam from his mouth.  After about 10 min I had used about a third of the paper towel roll to wipe foam from Benji's face.  I have never seen a cat foam from the mouth so badly.  I was holding him in my lap, he was shaking violently and was stiff as a board, foam pouring from his mouth.  I was soaked from the foam, as was Benji.  I was talking to him, trying to sooth him, petting him.  I force-fed him another teaspoon of canned cat food to maybe stop the foaming.  Then I gave him an oral syringe of plain water to rinse out his mouth.  He started choking violently on the water.  I rubbed his throat and held him, hoping he wouldn't throw up the medicine, thinking maybe the medicine was too strong anyway.

And then, suddenly, Benjamin's body went limp.  I felt all his muscles loosen and he passed out in my arms.  I was really concerned that I killed him.  At least he stopped foaming from the mouth.  He was still breathing, but was just knocked out.  I cleaned him up with warm water, checked his surgery site, which looked fine, and put him to bed for the night.  I think 50mg of Tramadol is too much for a little cat.  But at least he was relaxed and able to sleep. 

Stay tuned for the rest of the story about Benjamin!

Penny the House Chicken lays her first egg!

Today I decided to bring Penny the former house chicken inside my house as a break from the chickens.  She's been doing so good outside, learning how to be a chicken, but I figured she missed life inside a house.  Just in case you haven't read my former posts, she is a foster chicken from the local county shelter.  In her former life she lived in someone's house as a pet.

I put her in the kitchen and locked the cats out.  She lovvvvved being inside.  I turned the Olympics on TV and she didn't mind the noise one bit.  She's used to household noises, evidently.

She was very quiet when she was inside.  She walked all around checking everything out.  She liked eating cat food from the cat bowls and drinking their water.  Maybe she was fed and watered from a bowl before?

She was constantly scanning the floor, looking for things to peck.  She seemed very happy and ran from me when I attempted to pick her up and take her back outside to the chicken pen.  She prefers life indoors.  I brought her in the house first thing in the morning for about 30 minutes and later in the afternoon brought her back inside for another 30 min visit.  She begged to stay inside the second time.  She seems to be totally happy without other chickens around. 

This afternoon I collected eggs, and lo and behold, there was a new egg. 

Penny laid her first egg today!

We were told Penny never laid before.  Look at the small brown egg on the left.  It has an odd white crusty layer on the outside of the shell.  Sometimes a pullet's first eggs are odd, until her body gets used to laying regularly.  I've seen the white crust on many first eggs.  It was a small egg, which is normal for a first egg, too.  The large dark brown egg is from Candy, a Cuckoo Maran, and the green egg is from Virginia, an Amercauna.  The light brown egg is from Lucy.

And, dear Penny laid her egg in the guinea keet coop.  Of course she didn't lay it in the chicken coop like a normal chicken.  She's going to do things her way!

Penny must be happy if she's started laying eggs.  Hopefully she adjusts to life out in the chicken coop!

Penny the Hen update

The first night we had Penny the shelter pullet we put her in the chicken coop and she roosted with the other chickens.

The next morning all the other chickens left the roost, but I found her still sitting on the roost well after daybreak.  She didn't realize she was supposed to go outside with the other chickens by herself.  I showed her how to walk out of the coop.

That first day she spent out in the chicken pen and she loved it.  She rolled in the dirt and ran around the large outdoor area.  That evening she didn't know to go in the chicken coop, so she stayed outside after all the other chickens went into the chicken coop to roost.  I gave Penny some fresh chicken food out in the pen, and she enjoyed the alone time with me before it got dark.  I showed her the chicken waterer.  Evidently she didn't know what it was, as she was very thirsty.  I guess because she was a house chicken she had some sort of different waterer.  She loves the Menonite chicken food we get.  All the chickens love it, actually.  I showed her how to walk up the ramp into the chicken coop and put her on a roost and she slept the night.

The next day was today.  She made it outside this morning by herself.  She's learning.  Tonight she put herself to bed ----in the guinea keet coop.  We have 2 coops, one is used by chickens, one is for guinea keets.  Both have a little door and ramp going into the chicken pen.  The birds know which is which and all roost in the proper coop.  Penny didn't know.  I went into the guinea coop to check on the keets at 8pm and found Penny standing tall on a roost, beside 18 guinea keets.  Penny was talking her jibberish, quite proud of herself for putting herself to bed in a coop.  The guineas all were making their guinea keet songs, which is quite different from a chicken and definitely quite different from Penny sounds. 

Guess she didn't realize there's a difference between guineas and chickens.  I guess poor Penny doesn't understand either of their languages, does she?  She doesn't know where she fits in.  The guinea or the chicken languages, that is.  She was never around another chicken.  When the roosters cluck to tell the hens there's food, the hens all come running.  Not Penny.  She doesn't pay any mind to them.  I bet she doesn't understand their language.  Or do all chickens automatically understand one another?  She's definitely not deaf or anything.

The other chickens really don't pick on Penny too much anymore.  Some of them are old and moody, so they peck at her if she gets under their feet.  But mostly no one bothers her.  All in all, she's learning how chicken life should go.  Maybe this weekend I'll bring her in the house for some house time.  I bet she misses people.  I bet she's used to children.  I bet she misses human interaction and attention and human voices.  Maybe I'll like having a chicken in the house.  I think I have a chicken diaper already from when a chicken had a broken leg and was brought in...

We're foster parents!

I have some good news and some more good news!!!

Which news do you want to hear???

Ok, let's start at the top...

Last Saturday I was surfing the local county animal control website.  I'll tell you why I was there later.

And it was so sad.  I was viewing the photos of the animals for adoption.  And I found a chicken in the local county shelter!

I could picture her in my mind...

Poor chicken in a cage, surrounded by barking dogs and cats.

Of course it was Saturday evening, and the shelter was closed on Sunday.  According to the webpage she was there a week already.  Poor bird!  It broke my heart to think of a bird in a cage at the shelter.

So on Monday Randy went visiting the local shelter.

And without further ado - let me introduce our latest resident here at Razzberry Corner!

I think I like the name Penny, but I'm still determining if it fits her.

Penny was someone's house chicken.  She has not yet started laying eggs.  She never was around other chickens.  She does not make normal chicken noises.  Instead, she makes noises in her throat like a person talking jibberish.  It's very cute.

Penny has a lot to learn.  Last night she slept in the coop, her first time in a coop beside the other hens.  This morning she discovered dirt and took her first dirt bath.  She doesn't know to go in the coop at nighttime, so right now, at almost 8pm, she's still outside in the chicken pen while everyone is sleeping on their roosts in the coop.  I'll put her in the coop shortly.  She's very friendly, just like my other birds, and runs right up to me to be picked up.  The other birds pick on her, of course, like chickens do.

Back up a bit.  We signed up to adopt Penny and ended up becoming foster parents for chickens and guineas for our county.  The county came out Tuesday and inspected our farm and approved us.  Penny is a permanent foster chicken here at Razzberry Corner.  In the future when other chickens or guineas are brought into the shelter we told them we'll permanently foster them.

What kind of chicken does she look like?

Recently I mentioned the trees in our enclosed chicken pen, so I thought I'd show a photo of the big pine tree, from inside the pen.  The fence comes right up to the tree so no one can get in or out.

The chickens are all going into their coop in this picture.  Everyone except Penny, who's off somewhere else.  It's bedtime.

And here are the guinea keets inside the guinea keet pen, getting ready for bed, getting their final snack.  You can see the keet door that leads to the chicken pen in the back of the picture.

I'll give you my next good news in my next post!

Guinea Fowl Sleeping Locations

Let's talk about guinea fowl sleeping arrangements for a second.

If you have guinea fowl, where do they sleep at night?

My guineas always have roosted outside in a tree.

The guineas were raised in a coop, some of them were raised by chickens, some raised by humans, but all lived in chicken coops when they were keets.  All keets were released to the chicken pen when they were big enough to survive random pecks by curious chickens.  And all keets wanted to sleep outside in the trees in the chicken pen.  The ones that were raised by a mama (chicken) hen waited until the mama stopped mothering them and they stopped sleeping under her wings, then decided to sleep outside in the trees.  The keets raised by us humans, with no mama hen's help, decided to sleep in the trees on the very first night they were released outside into the chicken pen (versus being locked up in the chicken coop).  

It seems to be natural for guineas to want to sleep in trees.  

At least that's my opinion.

I want the guineas to sleep inside the guinea coop, but we have 5 adults guineas who sleep out in the trees and there's no telling them that they're going to sleep anywhere other than where they want.  They are free birds and do what they please.  They are fully free - no fences contain them.  It seems that predators attack at nighttime or in the late evening after the guineas have gone to roost in the tree or in the early dawn before the sun is fully up.  The guineas are blind when it's dark, they are easy prey.  

My idea is if I could make them sleep in the coop, I could close them in and keep them safe overnight, then let them free in the morning.  But that means someone would have to be home when the sun set every night to close the guinea coop door, locking the birds into the safety of the coop overnight, and open it in the morning.  The coop would have to be checked every eve to ensure no predators were waiting inside or got locked inside.  We have lots of random animals very closeby on our farm that may enter into the guinea coop, from opossums, woodchucks, raccoons, and fox to curious stray cats.  We've also seen mink less than a mile away.  If I put up a timer mechanism that closed the guinea door automatically at nighttime and opened it in the morning, my belief if that the coop still needs to be checked for safety before being closed.

And I don't want to make it impossible to go on vacation and don't want to bring additional work on us.

My husband's idea is that the birds should be free.  Let them sleep in trees.  That's what they want, that's how God made birds, to roost in trees.

What do you think?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, lets discuss my current guinea keet flock.  I have 18 young keets who were released into the chicken pen last week.  On their first evening outside they all roosted in one of the trees inside the chicken pen, even though every other night of their life they roosted in the guinea coop (they had always been locked in the coop).  And so, at 8pm, as the sun set, I went out there and chased and caught all the keets and put them into the guinea coop.  It took an hour, maybe more.  I was frustrated.  The keets all made it in and were locked in the guinea coop till morning.  

The next morning their little guinea door going from their coop into the chicken pen was opened and they walked out into the chicken pen themselves like grown-up birds.  That second night they all roosted in the tree in the pen, and I again worked hard and got them all locked up in the guinea coop.  Do you know what it takes to catch 18 birds that can fly in a HUGE pen?  It's not easy.  But they were locked up for the night.

The third evening I went out to the chicken pen, ready for my evening job, and wonder of wonders, all the keets had put themselves away into the guinea coop themselves! Yeah!  I locked them in and gave them treats in the coop.  I was so happy.  I also had a very bad cold at that time and was a walking, coughing, miserable zombie, so let me tell you, I was happy they put themselves away.

 

And for the next 4 nights the keets mostly put themselves away into their coop, but every now and then a few would have to be caught.  Then last night, after one week, they all were out in the tree again.  It was a struggle to coop them.  They really want to roost in the tree.

My husband continues to tell me that nature is nature, let the birds roost in the tree.  He tells me that once the keets are adults, and we release them into the wild with the 5 other adults guineas, that the keets will roost in the trees with the other guineas.  Why go through this struggle if they are going to sleep in trees like they want anyway?  I'm starting to agree with him.

Please let me know your opinion.

 

What I HATE!

Do you know what I hate???

Yeserday I was in the house and was wearing my good workout sneakers.  These are what I wear in the house, not out hiking, walking in the woods, or certainly not what I wear in the chicken pen.  I have walking boots for the woods, and nice rubber boots for the chicken pen.

And as I was in the house, in my good sneakers, considering doing an Insanity workout (that's another story, the Insanity workout), I heard the guineas screaming outside.

I waited a couple minutes.  The guineas always scream.

But after a few minutes they were still screaming, so I raced out the door, over the hill and down the far side, past the icehouse, following the guinea screams.  I thought maybe a fox was nearby.  The guineas usually stop screaming if it's nothing.  Maybe a fox was attacking them, maybe it was killing one of them right this very minute.  I have to save my birds!  I'll fight a fox off my birds with my bare hands if I have to! 

But once I made it to the guineas in the back field, they stopped screaming and all got long necks, looking at me like I was a crazy woman as I ran to their rescue.  And then they shut up and cooed happily as they made their way into the deeper woods, not a worry in their minds.  No fox, no nothing.  The guineas probably saw a leaf blow in the wind and started screaming over nothing.

Silly birds.

So I turned back and headed to the house. 

But wait, I should check on the guinea keets and chickens since I'm outside.  I haven't checked on them all day.

So I walk to the chicken pen, where all the chickens come running to greet me and get hugs.  I pick up Dotti, carry her in my arms as I look for the guinea keets.  The keets are all roosting in the tall bushes in the chicken pen. 

Lucy and Cinnamon run my my feet, trying to be the next bird to get picked up.  Chloe and Charlotte also fight for my attention.  I love these birds, and they love me.  Does everyone love their chickens as much as I do mine?  I hope so.  I guess I love all animals, not just chickens.  Who would have known that chickens have such personalities?  You don't know this until you've owned a chicken.  I think all animals, even deer and wild animals, have personalities, but humans don't know them. 

Dotti

Muffin the rooster stays close, crowing the entire time I'm out there, making sure I know he's the boss.  He's very territorial and doesn't like me cuddling with his hens.  I pick a few leaves out of a tree and toss them to the ground, making Muffin forget about being annoyed by my presence.  He quickly accepts my offering, clucks to the hens, and they all come running to munch down the leaves.  I put Dotti in the tree where she eats some leaves.

All is good in the chicken world, so I make my way towards the gate.  Lucy requests some time out in the yard to dig for bugs, I deny her request, I tell her I'll bring her a treat later and leave the chicken pen.  She clucks her disappointment.  Jade is clucking loudly in the coop, probably laying an egg.

Lucy

I go back in the house, go to the office, where I start to sort through papers, and ugh, what a horrible smell!  Oh no!

NOOOO!!!!

I check my feet. 

I still have on my good workout sneakers.

I WENT OUT IN THE CHICKEN COOP WITH MY GOOD SHOES ON!!!!  NO!

And on the bottom and sides of both of them is fresh chicken poop.

I hate that!!!!!

Guinea keets first day outside - the story in pictures

This week our 18 guinea keets were released from the coop for the first time.  We decided they were big enough to defend themselves from the chickens and decided to let them loose in the chicken pen.  If we had a chicken mama taking care of them we would have released them way earlier, as the mama hen would have protected them, but no chickens went broody this year, so the keets were raised without a mama. 

Our chicken pen is a very large enclosed area.  Large enough to have trees inside, but still fully enclosed so that hawks, skunks, raccoons, fox, owls, or any other animals that live in our woods cannot hurt the chickens.  The next step will be to release the keets to the wild, outside the chicken pen, with the other adult guineas.  But, one step at a time...

The day the guinea keets were released from their keet coop was very exciting!  I attempted to capture the events on film.  I apologize that some of my shots were not the most clear; I'm not the best photographer!

The keet coop has a little door going into the chicken pen.  We removed the wood that covered the door and the babies ventured down the ramp for the first time.

They were so scared but excited.  They already learned there's safety in a group.  They stayed in a huddle much of the first day.

The chickens were very interested.  Here's Candy, the cuckoo maran hen, taking a look at them.  Candy doesn't like the keets and doesn't hesitate to take a peck at them when she can.  They quickly learned Candy wasn't very friendly.  I love the keets' long necks!

We fed the keets their fav treat, mealworms, to make them comfortable.  The chickens quickly gobbled up the mealworms, too.

The adult guineas, especially the males, were very interested in the keets.  The gray guinea on the left is putting his wings up, showing he's the boss of the guineas.  He wants the babies to be aware that he's the lead guinea.  If he was able to, he probably would have chased them and pecked at them to prove his dominance.  The keets have a lot to learn.  At this time they were just saying to each other "Look, dirt! Let's dig!" - they were unaware of the dangers around them.  The white guinea male was quickly coming up on the right to see what was going on in the pen.

Meanwhile, inside the keet coop...  The chickens have been locked out of the keet coop for weeks, and were excited to gain entrance to a new area.  Below Lucy, the bantam hen, is checking things out.

Lucy investigates the nest boxes.  I wonder if she remembers last summer when she was broody and sat on eggs for 3 weeks in this very nest box.

Lucy looks around thoroughly, checking it all out.  She's looking around to the right side of the nestbox at the roost.

Now she gives the roost a test run.  Lucy is a smart bird; she's always been my favorite.

Let me introduce Dotti for the next part of this story.  Dotti is a Americauna/Bantam Leghorn mix hen.  She lays green eggs.  Dotti is one of our youngest hens, and is very active.

Dotti decided on that first day that it was her job to look out for the keets.  Most of the time she stayed somewhat nearby them watching over them.  She was very protective.  I bet if she ever went broody she'd make a good mother hen.  You can see her in the middle of the picture below, the keet pack is on the left.

The keets still have those long necks as they look around them, full of wonder.

Uh oh, here come the adult guinea males again!  The keets all huddle against the far fence, afraid of the huge males exerting their dominance.  I'm glad the male guineas cannot get near the babies yet!

And here comes Dotti to the rescue!  Dotti came racing in to save the babies!  Even though she's much smaller than the adult guineas, she stood right up to them, ready to fight for the keets.  Luckily there was a fence between her and the adult guineas, as she would have lost that fight.  You can see that now there was 3 adult male guineas outside the fence; the white one on the left and 2 gray ones on the right.  Dotti didn't hesitate, she didn't care.  She was protecting the keets!  What a spunky little bird!

This photo doesn't show it clearly, but here Dotti was facing off the adult white male guinea.  He was on the other side of the wooden fence post facing her off.  She won, the male guineas eventually left and walked off.

After the fight was over, Dotti checked on the babies to make sure they were ok.  What a great hen she is, and she just met the guinea keets that very day!

Leggy the white Leghorn rooster has always been very close to guineas. He was raised with guinea keets when he was a chick.  Here he is standing close to an adult male guinea, probably having a deep discussion...  Yeah, right, they were probably wishing they could fight, but knew the fence was in the way.

The keets went on with their day, digging in the dirt, while Dotti kept a protective eye over them from a distance.

And that was the first day outside the coop for our 18 keets.

The next story will be about the keets' sleeping arrangements... Stay tuned!

Guinea update

We have 18 guinea keets which are growing up fast!

Aren't they all so cute! The colors range from pure white, grey with spots, dark brown with spots, and mixed.

This picture shows a white keet jumping off the roost!

Here's our adult guineas - one female and 4 males.  The female is the dark one with spots.  The males all wait on her hand and and foot.  Or is it wing and foot?

Here's a week's worth of guinea eggs.  It's been raining a lot here, so they're good and dirty.

The adult guineas will be so excited when the babies are set free!