Chicken Diapers 101: Benefits, DIY Ideas, Do You Need It?

When I asked one of my chicken farmers about using chicken diapers or nappies for flocks, he laughed at me.

Chicken diapers are one of the funniest products which are used for poultry birds. Most people can’t imagine this type of thing in their minds.

In this guide, you will know all about chicken diapers. It includes the benefits of using a diaper for chicken, and also, you will understand, its need for your backyard guys.

What Are Chicken Diapers?

Chicken diapers are poultry nappies mainly made up of soft cotton cloth or fabric. They are wearable for chickens and ducks to avoid unnecessary mess caused by poultry droppings.

People mainly use it for pet chickens. It is one of the famous luxury and fashionable things used for poultry birds.

Worldwide, people are raising chickens primarily for business purposes. Mainly they grow them as free-range chicken, which needs portable chicken coops and sheds.

In poultry sheds, birds left their droppings on your barn area and chicken coop bedding. 

But with raising chickens as pets inside the house, like in your bedroom, kitchen, and drawing room, you may not allow chickens to leave poop everywhere. 

So, in that case, you may do two things – either you do chicken potty training, or use a chicken poultry diaper. It is really like a nightmare, but it’s true.

Benefits of Using Chicken Diapers?

Collecting chicken poop in a chicken diaper has some fantastic benefits for home chicken raisers. Let’s understand one by one how these chicken diapers work in your daily life:

• Using a chicken diaper reduces the mess inside the home if you keep flocks inside your house.
• It keeps your house, kitchen, and car clean.
• You can take your chicken wherever you go, like for a morning walk, shopping, etc.
• It will be helpful if you want to take your bird to a chicken fashion show.
• Poultry droppings may cause infections because of bacteria and viruses in them. Chicken diapers are amazingly helpful for decreasing the percentage of pathogens on your house floor.
• If you are a chicken lover and your bird sometimes sleeps on your bed, then these chicken diapers also help you keep your bed clean.
• Chicken diapers are also a luxury product if you are raising chickens as pets inside the house. The chicken diaper business is booming in most developed countries.
• Most chicken diapers are made up of smooth, colorful cloth or fabric with a waterproof poop pouch.
• It is now a trend and fashion because of its stylish and premium look.

Top 5 Best Chicken Diapers to Keep House Clean

Here is a list of a few best chicken diapers for your rooster and hen:

Last update on 2023-05-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Baby Chicks Diapers

Well, as we are talking about diapers for chickens, you must have a question – can baby chicks also need diapers? 

No, baby chicks don’t need any diapers or nappies. Baby chicks need brooding in their initial stage of life.

To avoid the mess, keep them inside a brooder box and open them for grazing in your park and lawn to make them stress-free. Releasing them in an open area makes them happy, and also they will do whatever they want in the open place. 

You can not use a nappy for baby chicks because they have very soft feathers, and poop may stick on them and cause fungal, bacterial infections like pasty butt.

Use some good chicken beddings inside the brooder box or house and keep them free for 3-4 weeks. When they grow and become adults, you can use a chicken diaper if you need it.

Do I Need a Chicken Diaper?

Using a chicken diaper is an awkward thing to use for most poultry farmers because it is only for pet chickens.

You may not have heard about chicken diapers if you are a backyard chicken farmer or a large-scale poultry farmer. As it is not a required product for chicken raisers, most people don’t know about it.

I will not recommend a chicken diaper if you are raising your chickens in your backyard coop or farm. Yes, you do not need it.

You can use it only if you are keeping chickens as pets and live most of the time inside your house. For a potty-trained chicken, it is not required.

So, you need a chicken diaper only if you are concerned about fashion and luxury when keeping chickens inside your living house. Otherwise, you do not need any nappies for chickens.

How to Put On a Chicken Diaper?

Before putting a diaper on your chicken’s back, you must understand the parts of the chicken diaper. It mainly contains four elastics for body fitting, one chest part cloth, one back part cloth, and the essential waterproof poop pouch.

Putting on a chicken diaper is like diapering a human child, but as chickens do not have an open belly, the design of their diaper has a little different design.

So, now follow the below easy steps to put on a chicken diaper–

1. Most companies make the poop pouch water-resistant, despite that, you need to make it easy to use and disposable.
2. Just fold a paper towel from the center in half and put it inside the poop pouch.
3. The paper towel works like a disposable chicken diaper. The chicken dropping goes inside the poop pouch, and the paper towel will absorb the liquid substance.
4. Remember to change the paper towel every few hours so that it does not harm your chicken’s skin.
5. The cloth piece, which is long and attached to a poop pouch, is the chest part and another in the back part.
6. Bring the elastic part from the upper part of the wings and hook them under both wings.
7. Check the poop pouch is appropriately covering the cloaca of the chicken.
8. Then lock the upper hook or button tightly.

Important Chicken Diaper Maintenance Tips

Cleaning and checking the chicken diaper every couple of hours is most important. We know it’s a diaper, but it differs from human diapers. Human diapers contain extra gel and they are disposable.

It is mainly a reusable diaper, so you need to follow these steps –

1. Change the paper towel every couple of hours so that the poop will not overflow.
2. Putting a new paper towel provides extra absorbing capacity.
3. It is essential because excess chicken poop stuck inside the poop bag may cause various skin infections in chickens.
4. Also, drying of poop on the vent and cloaca area may become fatal for chickens.
5. Dry wet feathers may cause rashes and fungal infections in chickens, so cleaning the vent and back thrice a day is good if you use a chicken nappy.

How to Make Chicken Diapers? Free DIY Ideas

Here are some essential tips and steps to make chicken diapers at home. These are easy and free DIY ideas that will help you make chicken diapers within a few hours.

How to Take Measurements for Making Chicken Diapers?

For easy understanding, follow the measurement as shown in the image. All chicken raisers grow different types of chicken breeds of different sizes and weights.

Chicken diapers are one thing that you need according to the size of your chicken. If you want to make it at home, take some measurements of your chicken.

First, measure the area from the base of the neck to the oil gland, around the neck above the crop, ground from the neck to above the crop, and the oil gland downside to the vent area.

Sewing All the Fabric and Elastic Pieces

Keep the ‘base from the next to vent area’ piece width about 2 inches and the ‘oil gland downside to the vent area’ piece width about 2.5 inches.

Also, remember to measure the elastic with the button must be measured with the ‘oil gland downside to vent area’ fabric cloth.

For the neck area, you need two more pieces of elastic sewed with both red and green pieces shown in the illustrated chicken diaper pattern.

You can also make extra padding inside the poop pouch. It must be cut in U shape cut pieces and made it using a water-resistant or proof fabric. So, that poop does not stick to it.

Add two buttons to connect the back elastic with the poop pouch. That is all, your chicken diaper is ready to use.

Chicken Diaper Pattern for Making from Sock

Summary

People keep pet chickens inside their houses. Pet chickens differ from chickens that live in tractors or sheds. 

A considerable percentage of chicken raisers grow their chickens only for breeding, eggs, and meat purposes. 

On the other side, few people grow chickens as pets. Most of these chicken owners take them wherever they go, like going to a picnic, party, or walk. 

So, in that condition, they need to use a chicken diaper for their bird. It helps to care for them and stops them from making an unnecessary mess because of poop.

Every day, clean the inner padding (paper towel) and clean the chicken vent and back so that it does not cause any health issues for your bird.

So, we can say that use chicken diapers only if you are keeping chickens inside the house. For backyard chickens, I do not recommend this.

If you are using diapers on your chickens, ensure she will not wear them 24×7. Follow the above maintenance steps to keep your flocks healthy.

Must share your experience of using a chicken diaper. We will be happy to hear your words in the comment section.