Never Keep A Rooster As A Pet

We did that mistake. We had five birds as pets named after the greek alphabet alpha, beta, gamma, theta and omega. We lost them as they became old but one lived for 12 years. His name was Gamma. We realised it was a mistake although he turned out to be the best pet ever. He alerted us when strangers were seen around. He even alerted us when he spotted reptiles in the garden. He was friendly with our pet dog and they were the best of pals
But what we saw as he was growing old was that he had an attack of arthritis and his comb grew so big that it interfered while he was eating. He got stool bound and we lost him.
Never keep roosters as pets.

 

We have loose chickens in our extended garden and my husband enjoys feeding them. In the early morning, we would be wakened by the crowing of the roosters. Fortunately, we have an air conditioner so the windows are shut and the sound does not penetrate much to our bedroom. Chickens are not good for pets because they are designed to be for food. By the way, roosters here have their combs removed for comfort. Using a blade, the owner would cut off the comb and it will not grow. The rooster would look like a bald man.

 

Wow! The rooster that lived for 12 years really tried. The aforementioned reasons are not enough not to have roosters as pet. Roosters are nice around and it's not expensive to keep them, what happened to your rooster were normal old age issues. It's very unusual for roosters to live for that long.

 

And the reason is?

 

I don't see this as a reason for not keeping roosters as pets. When I was a youngster there were many occasions where roosters were kept as pets and they lived for many years and there was usually the problems that would be associated with old age. There are other animals that experience similar problems when they getting old. Would it be okay to exclude these animals from being pets because they may develop some complications when they get old?

 

Normally only those animals that are not eaten are kept as pets. I agree with you all animals do go through old age ailments but this guy just could not walk nor eat. I used to carry him around like a baby and I felt sad for him that he was not enjoying his life. But when he was healthy he was a true companion.

 

I am with you when you say chickens are meant for food. We made that mistake. However I will not nurture them for food but buy them. My mother had chickens - scores of them. I remember one chick had fallen down when a kite was carrying it. She picked it up and found that its beak had gone crooked. She hand fed it all her life.

 

Growing up, we always kept a rooster with the hens. When they free-ranged, he was fairly good at attacking anything that went near them. The barn cats and family dog were the biggest dangers he faced most times but he also chased off the neighbor's dog a few times. The real bonus though was that with a rooster around, sometimes one of the hens would volunteer to be a mother by going broody. In a SHTF scenario, it will be pretty important to have roosters for fertile eggs and more generations of chickens. A flock of hens will only lay for so long. Our main rooster lived 9 years. The younger roosters were dinner but he was definitely a pet.

 

"Only one reason to keep a rooster."
"And that is?"
Answer: Cock fighting. However you'll need more than one if you're serious about this sort of gambling operation.
My family was never into cock fighting, however it was extremely popular and lots of money was involved. Knew a couple of guys who were headed for the gates of a cock-fighting operation. As they near the automatic gates, two state highway patrol head out of the place. The guys drive on, kill some time, come back to see what was going on. Guy running the place says, "Not to worry, those cops were just picking up their take." In that state, highway patrol were rotated region to region so as to prevent graft. So what would happen is that the cops would simply turn over their kickback arrangements to the incoming crew. So it went, round-robin, all around the state. Think about it, how could you trust a cop who wasn't your friend?!

And what's this about having a rooster as a pet?!!! Draw a drop of blood from me = microsecond death.

When my dad was a little boy, a hen pecked him. He said that he then picked up one of its chicks and slammed it dead against the barn. As to dogs, my dad said of stray dogs, "Shoot them through their lungs, boy. They'll go off and die someplace else." He told me this after shooting a dog (I'd just brought him a rifle he'd won on a punch board game). I got my dog, tracked the stray, found it dead, it was shot through the lungs. On another occasion, two guys in a speeding car ran over our dog on purpose. "Go get my gun," says my dad. Was he going to finish the dog? No, the dog's neck was snapped. He was going to kill the men. He liked that dog a lot. Mammow found out who they were (they lived in a trailer park behind where kin had land) and then she forbade the family from telling my dad any such information -- she knew her son. She was loving. I remember her setting me on fire with a switch when I was four years old for saying, "I want my mommy!" Can't be weak. Weakness leads to death.

 

Gamma played a great role as a 'watchman' and companion to our dog and us but looking at his suffering in the last couple of months I felt roosters were not meant to be kept as pets. You are right when you say one of the roles of a rooster is to see that we get fertile eggs and for that we need not keep them as pets but as part of the poultry.