Suggestions for Ensuring Bird Welfare During Housing
With a mandatory housing order coming into effect for all kept birds and poultry this Monday 17th February, OutmoreNI is sharing some tips on how to look after your birds during this time.
- Good quality structure and space. Ideally you’ll have a sufficiently sized structure to keep your birds in – the fewer birds and more space they have, the happier they will be.
- Enrichment of their habitat is incredibly important. Encourage foraging behaviour and games with their food. Deep straw beds are a great place to drop in some of their favourite treats and get them to search for.
- You can also hang treats up and make them work for it! Get them to use their brains and problem solve.
- Monitor your birds’ stress levels. Check the feathering at their back end – pristine round feathers suggests they’re coping well, whilst chunks or V shaped sections missing from their feathers suggests they’re pecking and may need more engagement.
- Change up how you look after them each day.
It’s a difficult time, but adherence to the housing now could potentially save tens of thousands of birds lives. There is loads of advice online on how to look after birds during housing also.
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