The Omlet Blog Archives: August 2015

Is Your Cat Killing Native Wildlife?

There are a lot of news stories at the moment in Australia about cats killing native wildlife.  It is estimated that there are 20 million feral cats in Australia and they kill approximately 75 million native animals a day – each feral cat kills between 5-30 animals per day. While they appear to prefer small mammals, they also eat birds, reptiles and amphibians (source: Australian Wildlife Conservancy).

Obviously there is not much us as individuals can do about the feral cat situation, except of course don’t feed them, that is something that needs to be sorted out at a government level.  But we can make sure that our pet cats don’t contribute to the killing of native wildlife.

You might be reading this thinking “but my kittykins wouldn’t do that” and maybe he or she wouldn’t but, do you know what they get up to when you aren’t around?  Cats are natural hunters and noctural – they hunt at night.  Usually we are tucked up in bed when our little darlings are outside potentially terrorising the local wildlife. (more…)

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This entry was posted in Cats on August 27th, 2015 by admin


Entertaining Your Girls

Hen pecking

If your chickens are pecking at the fence or run wire it may be because they are bored.

Chickens are pretty intelligent animals and are a bit like children who are bored, they turn a bit naughty!  This naughtiness might be in the form of pecking through their fence if is a nylon one.

Why Do Chickens Get Bored?

A bit like us it is because they have nothing to entertain them…  The reasons they get bored can be because:

  • There is nothing to peck at in their run, maybe the grass has all gone
  • You have had to move them into a smaller run or area due to colder weather
  • Their run is just dirt, nothing interesting in there for them

 

 

 

hanging parrot toy

Ideas to Help Prevent Chicken Boredom:

  • Hang up a bird feeder with vegetable leaves in it
  • Hang up a whole cabbage, the fun with this is that it moves around as it is pecked which makes it harder for the chicken
  • Use something like broccoli and hang it so that the chickens have to jump to reach it, exercise, entertainment and food in one!
  • Hang up bird toys that you would buy for parrots, you could easily make one of these as well
  • Hang up a mirror, they love looking at themselves – they find it fascinating
  • Throw in some straw or hay with a handful of sunflower seeds or mealworms for them to peck around and find
  • Fill an empty plastic bottle with chicken scratch, then piece the sides with holes so that the chickens have to roll the bottle around to get the scratch
  • Add a dust bath to the run, this can be as simple as a container filled with sand
  • Freeze treats like sweetcorn into ice cubes so they have to peck through the ice to get the corn
  • Hang up old cds so that they move in the breeze
  • Add extra perches, this can be an old wooden crate or a tree stump, it doesn’t need to be fancy
  • Add a chicken swing, hours of entertainment swinging to and fro

chicken swinging

What do you do to keep your chooks entertained?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This entry was posted in Chickens on August 25th, 2015 by admin


Do Plastic Chicken Houses get hot?

hot weatherI get asked this question A LOT, and the answer is yes plastic chicken houses do get hot in the heat, but so do wooden ones.  Just because a chook house is made from plastic it doesn’t mean that it will heat up more and boil your chooks.

With the Omlet Eglu houses they are double insulated, which means that they keep the inside of the house cooler in summer and warmer in winter.  Now to clarify the double insulation in summer does not mean that your chickens will be living in a fridge!  It is probably around 5 -10 degrees cooler in the house versa outside depending on where the house is situated. (more…)

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This entry was posted in Chickens on August 19th, 2015 by admin


Eglu Go UP with 3m run gets Support!

The Eglu Go UP usually comes with a 2m run, however you can buy it with an extra 1m run extension, if you do this, then the run gets a bit wobbly when you put it together…..  Which is why you get 2 green poles to attach to the outside of the run to make it more stable.

Eglu Go Up run Extension supportsUnfortunately at the moment the instructions you get with the 1m run extension doesn’t explain this, so people get left with 2 poles and wonder what they are for 🙁

In the diagram here you can see where to put the 2 poles – one each side of the run where the long red line is. (more…)

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This entry was posted in Chickens on August 15th, 2015 by admin


Super Pet… Up Up and Away

dog travellingLet’s start by stating the obvious… Australia a BIG place and sometimes you don’t want to drive the 10 hours to Melbourne, you want to fly, because it’s quicker, easier and much less stressful! However what about if you have a pet that you want to take with you, how do you do it?

  • Strap a pair of wings to their arms?
  • Smuggle them onto the plane in your hand luggage?
  • Dress them in human clothing and pretend they are your baby (note this is only for small pets :))

Unfortunately you aren’t allowed to do any of the above on planes… unless you have a service animal (e.g. guide dog) they need to go in the hold with the bags. There is one exception – charter a private jet (like Johnny Depp) and you can have them wherever you like! (more…)

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This entry was posted in Pets on August 3rd, 2015 by admin