How to rear a happy and healthy vegetarian house chicken

Honestly i do not think a chook would be very happy inside as they love to dust bath, run around on the grass and lay in the sun and sun bake. These are there natural instincts and they should be encouraged, Taking it away from them would be cruel.

Do you live in down or in the country? They should have a warm, clean and protective pen to sleep in at night, the size depends on the number of chooks you have

Chooks naturally eat insects and lizards and are part of there diet, i allow my chooks to eat them as it is healthy and nutritional for them.

If you live in town make sure you check with your local council before you get any chooks. There are heaps of forum topics on this subject, just use the search button and you should find all your answers If you cant get it to work i can help you out

Cheers

I've seen chickens inside and I know that mine always wants to come inside with us.. but they do need to go outside too. As said above, they need grass and bugs and dust and sun!! They love it!! Playing in the leaves, running around!

Mine is spoilt and likes exploring inside if we leave the door open. They are such funny things.

Personally, I wouldn't want a pet chook inside. They poop a lot. It would be kinda gross. Unless you had a proper set up for it, but just kept it inside.

There is a website that has some awesome chicken coops made in Australia.. there are some big ones that would keep chickens very happy

Also.. chickens like to be in a group.

1. don't eat the chicken
2. let it lose in your garden

3. purchase a small innocent puppy,
press the chicken into its' face and put the chicken on its' back so it gets to ride around on teh puppy. then the puppy will grow up being very used to it and maybe even they fall in love, then the ravenous beast can scare away all the cats, MUUAHAHAHAHAH UAHAHAHHAHA!


all three steps are crucial in raising a vegetable house chicken

Thanks all. After reading your comments and also thinking about it a bit, I think it is mostly wishful thinking on my own end in terms of my hope to be able to rear a chicken on a strictly vegan diet. Cos there's no stopping them from eating insects or small animals if they really want to...

I'm sharing house with people at the moment so the days of having chooks of my own - home chooks or otherwise - is still some time away. Regarding poop in the house, yeah, that's a big one, though I read about being able to buy diapers for them (but that leaves the question of moolah for an endless supply of diapers plus having to clean their matted butt feathers yucks). If I do get to keep house chooks, I will let them out for the sun and fresh air weekly or so. Thus I guess the biggest problem is getting them on a vegetarian diet and making sure they don't attack other insects/animals.  Which I feel is the hardest to do, especially the last one...

I thought we were rearing happy chickens.

Your chooks will become frustrated and will begin peaking each other wich will result in them loosing feathers and they will get small puncture wounds over there body like when they are in battery cages

They will definally not be very happy chooks.

A chicken that wants to come inside to investigate is one thing, forcing them to stay inside, without the option of outside is another.  It would be no different than what happens to them now.  Chickens are highly intelligent and curious creatures, they need to have the freedom to explore as they want.  They need to be outside daily, not weekly.  Catching and eating insects and bugs and such, is part of their normal behaviour and natural diet.  

Another thing, most birds are not able to grind food in their gut, so usually pick up little stones and swallow them, to do this for them.  I'm not sure about chickens, but I think they'd probably do the same.