My blind chicken has taught her sisters to eat sand! Help!

[Kawkawkaye]

Okay first of all: yes, I understand the concept of grit. And how chickens scrummage through dirt looking for bugs. This is not that.

So we have a blind chicken, and instead of being at the bottom of the pecking order, she’s actually quite popular. She’s taught her sisters a LOT of bad habits— every time she does something weird they seem to copy her!

Anywho she’s come to the conclusion that sand is very tasty. I’m guessing she hears them foraging and tries to copy, but of course all she can find is sand.

She does have a bucket of grit that she knows to help herself to (and obviously she knows where her food bowl is), I think she just wants to join in with the others.

So her diet is a problem in itself— in fact we’re struggling to get her to put on weight because obviously the sand just cycles through her. But it’s becoming a BIGGER problem because her sisters have been watching her eating sand and want to copy HER. Now they ALL eat sand. I don’t mean just a tiny peck here and there. I am talking full course meals of sand. I am literally having to put sand BACK into the pen because they create huge holes and poop the sand out elsewhere. I am not meaning the dust bathing holes either— there really are whole canyons missing from the pen. They go nuts for it.

I am worried 1) for their health, and 2) for my sanity. I’m struggling to come up with a way to resolve this, does anyone have any ideas of how I could train or deter them?

 

[cavemanrich]

Post some pix of it. Then I will give you my opinion.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[swampfox440]

Unreal!

 

[My2butterflies]

Wow, what an unusual problem
The only thing I can think of is to remove all access to sand.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

Wow, what an unusual problem
The only thing I can think of is to remove all access to sand.

X2 on all counts

 

[Kawkawkaye]

Wow, what an unusual problem
The only thing I can think of is to remove all access to sand.

X2 on all counts

Wow, what an unusual problem
The only thing I can think of is to remove all access to sand.

We live in the desert sand is literally all there is I think it’s a bit unrealistic to replace their entire pen with something else. But thanks!

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

We live in the desert sand is literally all there is I think it’s a bit unrealistic to replace their entire pen with something else. But thanks!

Well that is a problem... maybe give them some treats to distract them from it? Watermelon or mealworms or something?

 

[My2butterflies]

We live in the desert sand is literally all there is I think it’s a bit unrealistic to replace their entire pen with something else. But thanks!

Oh dear, I’m really not sure what can be done.

 

[Viergacht]

I've noticed mine like to copy bad habits, too - I have one who was a single chick growing up and is very attached to me, she has figured out which window is my bedroom and if I'm late with dinner she comes and screams at me through it, and now all the others do, too. It sounds like a flock of angry seagulls!

Anyways, you're probably going to have to isolate the blind popular girl from the others first. Try breaking the habit by keeping her in something like a small dog pen with a metal floor. Put her seed/pellets in a bowl that's too heavy to tip over, and put something she can't eat like straw down to cover the floor. This will teach her there's no reward for pecking around on the floor randomly and hopefully will break her of the habit. Meanwhile keep an eye on the others to see if they stop eating sand in her absence. Try to distract them with high-value treats hung up off the ground - mine like tomatoes, cucumber, apples, bananas, scrambled eggs and red grapes - you can get a hanging basket for treats. It'll take some patience and there's usually an "extinction burst" of bad behavior right before they give it up entirely.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Would it be realistic to add the sand with pebbles mixed in with it to the chicken run?