One little chicken
Hey guys, look what I found in my garden this afternoon!
Yes, it's a little chick! It's about one week old and I have no idea where it came from. We live in the countryside, but none of my neighbours have chickens, so it must have come a long way, poor darling! All I know is that one of my cats was playing with it in one of the flowerbeds today and its loud chirps alerted me. Luckily, my cat Aldo is pretty lazy and wouldn't hurt a fly, so he was just touching it with his soft paws and pushing it around as if it were a soft toy. The little chick was unscathed when I rescued it, if only a little scared. The cat was puzzled at first, but soon lost interest in it, so I took the little one inside to show it to my daughter, who was incredibly excited at the idea of being able to hold a live chick. The little fluffball soon took a liking to her and probably started considering her as its surrogate mother, because it started crying (or whatever acute chirping little chicks do when they are scared) incessantly every time she went away, so she had to keep it in her hands all the time to make it shut up.
We tried to see if any of the neighbours who have animals had lost a chick, but without success, so I finally called the vet, who told me what to feed it and how to keep it warm for the night until we find it a proper house (not sure how I'm going to do this, but I'll try). I've now bought it bird seed with corn & sunflower seeds and have also made a little hen house out of a cardboard box so that the chick can sleep safely in my daughter's room for the night. A hot water bottle and some old rags are keeping it warm and the little one has now fallen asleep, undoubtedly exhausted after the eventful day. The room is unaccessible to our six cats, so I guess there won't be any big problems for tonight, but I'm still wondering what to do with it tomorrow.
Any of you have ideas on how to raise a little chick who has no mother hen and lives in a house full of cats? Just asking.
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Yes, it's a little chick! It's about one week old and I have no idea where it came from. We live in the countryside, but none of my neighbours have chickens, so it must have come a long way, poor darling! All I know is that one of my cats was playing with it in one of the flowerbeds today and its loud chirps alerted me. Luckily, my cat Aldo is pretty lazy and wouldn't hurt a fly, so he was just touching it with his soft paws and pushing it around as if it were a soft toy. The little chick was unscathed when I rescued it, if only a little scared. The cat was puzzled at first, but soon lost interest in it, so I took the little one inside to show it to my daughter, who was incredibly excited at the idea of being able to hold a live chick. The little fluffball soon took a liking to her and probably started considering her as its surrogate mother, because it started crying (or whatever acute chirping little chicks do when they are scared) incessantly every time she went away, so she had to keep it in her hands all the time to make it shut up.
We tried to see if any of the neighbours who have animals had lost a chick, but without success, so I finally called the vet, who told me what to feed it and how to keep it warm for the night until we find it a proper house (not sure how I'm going to do this, but I'll try). I've now bought it bird seed with corn & sunflower seeds and have also made a little hen house out of a cardboard box so that the chick can sleep safely in my daughter's room for the night. A hot water bottle and some old rags are keeping it warm and the little one has now fallen asleep, undoubtedly exhausted after the eventful day. The room is unaccessible to our six cats, so I guess there won't be any big problems for tonight, but I'm still wondering what to do with it tomorrow.
Any of you have ideas on how to raise a little chick who has no mother hen and lives in a house full of cats? Just asking.
.