Birds eat stones.

Okay, so you may or may not know it, but get this, birds eat stones. Tiny pebbles, not big stones.Reason? Well birds, unlike other animals, dont have teeth, and they lack teeth even when they grow up. that is why they eat pebbles and keep it in their stomach so that the pebbles help the bird grind the food in the stomach, which helps in digestion. Obviously, you cant digest non chewed food.

We found this out in a quite scary way, actually...
We fed Micro and Pipette some soaked lentils ('masoor dal' in Hindi) and they gobbled it up happily and then while playing with them, we saw this orange tumor like thing on the right side of their neck. 

"What the hell! Is that a tumor? Oh, my God!" was our reaction. Then obviously Google came to our rescue and we came to know that we had to feed them tiny stones immediately, or else they would not be able to digest the lentils and would die!

So we took out some tiny pebbles from our fish tank, boiled them to get rid of germs or anything, and then mixed it with some crushed lentils and force fed Micro and Pipette. We had no other option!

That night was tough on my sister and me. And mom and dad, perhaps. Even though um dad weren't thrilled to hear that my sis had got baby chickens home, they obviously melted when they saw the 2 yellow fuzz balls! :D

next day Micro and Pipette were fine. Their swollen gizzard (stomach) was normal and their poop was normal too! *phew*

How come there are no chicken doctors? like, hardly!

I can't tell which one that is. Probably Pipette. He is the energetic boy. <3

Tale of Two Chickies!

Those two obviously woke up at 4 am the next day, screaming and talking with each other I guess. Probably wondering where they are. Little did they know that they'd be brought up by two humans and not chicken parents. The life of my two chickens is the perfect example of Nature vs. Nurture.

We put their cardboard box with them in it, in the balcony so that they could get some fresh air and sunlight. We gave them a tiny deep saucer kind of thing with water in it. Now the big question: what to feed them now? We ultimately settled for puffed rice and oats, crushed of course, and put in in another dish and they started pecking it and eating it, which was a relief. Its not easy, feeding a baby bird with huge human hands.

That afternoon, my sister went to the market and bought a big cage and some hay for them. For two tiny baby chickens, it was a pretty big cage and we made them a nest kind of thing with hay and grass for them and also put a shoe box with tissues in it, in case they wanted to explore the world! Turns out, they were not too excited to enter the dark shoe box. We lined up the cage with newspaper so that their head or beak or feet did not get stuck in the wire and also put a newspaper on the cage floor, to collect the poop. Turns out, chickens love eating newspaper! They would keep eating it and poop small newspaper pellets until we removed the paper because we were scared that they were ingesting the ink as well. Taking away the paper made them very angry! If you want to treat your chicken, just give him/her a piece of plain paper. ;)

They had an early bedtime, dusk, but they'd go off to sleep at around 8 pm. So from 5:30 pm (when the sun sets) till 8 pm, they would scream at the top of their voice, like, literally scream their lungs out, probably protesting the early bedtime because they have so much energy to play, and the screaming wore them out so that they'd be quiet and off to sleep by 8. Those 2 and a half hours were very noisy!

The First Night

Mike and Pip's first night at home was exciting and scary at the same time. I mean, who normally knows how to  take care of two new born chickens? What are you supposed to feed them? Where do you keep them? How do u feed them?And what if something happened to them...then what do u do?

When my sister came home on 17th october, she told me that apparently the 2 chickens had hatched, climbed down the incubator (God knows how) and were sitting under it, screaming for help. The incubator has this automatic fan kind of  thing that goes on and off on its own. One wrong second, and my chickens would be chopped up. So obviously i'd like to believe that them being alive is a miracle!

We kept them in a cardboard box with tissue papers and cotton balls (which were bigger than them in size haha) and we fed them baby food with our finger, somehow. And then fed them water by dipping cotton in water and putting it drop by drop into their tiny little mouth. They loved water for some reson! They'd close their eyes, and open their beak wide and you could see their tiny little pink tongue wagging as they asked for more water. And as if water was one blessing from God, they close their eyes and slowly start leaning back and ultimately would fall on their bum. They were the 2 most adorable little creatures ever. I'm so lucky to have them.

Then after their dinner, we shut their box but made sure there were gaps on all sides, and then we covered the box with my sister's childhood blanket so that they'd be warm in there. It was october...pretty cold. Then we blow dried their box from outside to make it nice and warm ad then soon they went off to sleep. All night my sister was up, heating their box every half an hour. it was like a chicken ICU...like the doctors say "we'll have to keep them under observation. the fist 24 hours are crucial."

Next day they were up and screaming, probably for food, and when we opened the box, we saw tiny drops of bird poop. I have never been so happy to see bird poop. It meant that they were functioning fine. We had been perfect chicken mommies.

And they were my little babies <3

My Pet Chickens and their journey...

Micro-Pipette

In case you are wondering that this blog is abut the lab instrument called the micropipette, well, it's not. Micro and Pipette are my two pet chickens!
I live in a city, and not in the suburbs or anything, so having pet chickens is [retty much a weird thing, but well, Mike and Pip were meant to be with us.

My sister was working with chicken embryos in her lab and the incubator had lots of eggs out of which these 2 eggs were unused and one day, just before her vacations were to start, they hatched (at the same time!). So my sister got them home...otherwise they'd die.

So they were born on 17th October, 2012 and are almost 8 months old now. Oh, and Micro is a girl and pipette is a guy. Destiny works in mysterious ways...

here's a picture of them on day 1-

They are the cutest things ever! I always wanted baby chickens, because they are like little yellow fuzz balls, but i never imagined that I'd actually have them! 

Do you have pet chickens? Let me know! I have a Ph.D in broiler chickens (if there is such a thing). If you have questions about ur chickens, like I did, I can definitely help you.

:)