BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds Anyone keep poultry or waterfowl as pets?

Hi all!

I'm not sure if this fits under this topic or not, but since I keep my chickens and ducks as pets I thought I would throw it out there.

Anyone else have a pet chicken or duck? My birds have their own barn where they sleep at night and have access to during the day when they're out ranging. I have 9 chickens and 3 ducks currently. Been keeping poultry for a few years now and I really love it!

I also have a pet cockatiel named Moe and he's a really sweetheart.

Here's a couple photos of me birds!

Moe, the normal grey cockatiel- [imageBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Pet Poultry & waterfowl would come under pet birds as far as I am concerned, but unfortunately I can't keep those kinds of pets in the city that I live in. Therefore I don't really know a lot about them.

Cockatiels like your little Moe is certainly a bird that I know lots about though <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Actually, if I lived in a place where I could have ducks & chickens, I would probably also have horses & goats. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Aren't 'teils great? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'd have a house full if I could.

I suppose my birds are hoofstock substitutes since I can't really have horses and cows where I live now. But substitutes or not, I love 'em. They're almost prehistoric in a sense. And a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for.

Do you breed birds or just keep them as pets or both?

I have bred birds in the past but now I just have pets. The 3 in the picture all hatched in my home.

Awww...cute pictures!What kind of chicken is that black one?

I live in the city,so unfortunalty I cannot raise them up.However one of my dreams is to move to a small Newfoundland town and have pet (strictly pet...since I don't eat them!) poultry!I also want a couple of turkeys!

They are very smart and alot of people just don't believe it...kind of sad really...

I keep ducks as pets - I even harness and diaper them on occasion so they can run around the house. (They used to live indoors full-time until we brought home a boyfriend to keep "the girls" occupied.... <img src="/images/graemlins/lovers.gif" alt="" /> ). My husband used to think I was crazy until our tree trimmer told us his wife keeps a rooster in their bathroom. Apparently we're not the only ones keeping poultry in the house around here.

Denise Lacazette
Exotic Pets Editor

Thanks Denise,

If anyone is interested, Denise has written an article about ducks as house pets at http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art40334.asp