Not only is the popularity of keeping pet pitbulls increasing but the number of people keeping backyard chickens is also sky rocketing right now.
We don’t know why but there definitely seems to be a correlation with the people who like the pitbull dog breed and the people who want to keep backyard chickens matching up lots.
This has caused a large spike in the number of people reaching out with various questions about keeping pitbulls and chickens together recently as well as resulted in a number of nightmare stories on social media too.
Due to this, we wanted to publish this article going over the more commonly asked questions that we have seen people asking about keeping pitbulls and chickens together.
Our hope is that we will be able to help our readers better understand both sides of the argument as well as the potential risks if you do try to socialize your pitbull and your chickens with each other.
Many of the discussions that we have seen on social media seem to only focus on one side of the argument depending on the specific group that is having the discussion so we hope that we will be able to offer a balanced view.
Will A Pitbull Attack A Chicken?
The average pitbull will usually attack the average chicken due to the prey drive of most pitbulls being high.
We know that a pitbull can be trained to be a loving, caring dog and make a great pet but in most cases, the pitbull does have a high prey drive.
This goes back to the origin of the pitbull breed where it was originally bred to hunt rats and other small game so dogs with high prey drive were usually bred to encourage the characteristic in their offspring.
Now, we know that there are videos and photographs on social media that show pitbulls and chickens playing with each other and this can definitely happen.
In most cases though, the pitbull has to be raised with chickens from a very young age and even then, the pitbulls prey drive can randomly kick in and cause the dog to go for the chicken.
There are a number of stories that have been published on social media where that has happened even though the pitbull had been fine with chickens for years and never had an issue.
Then, one day, the pitbull suddenly decides to eat the chicken that it usually plays with.
Can a Pitbull Kill A Chicken?
A pitbull can easily kill a chicken within seconds.
As we mentioned earlier, pitbulls were originally bred to hunt rats and other small game and vermin so they will have no problem dealing with a chicken if they get the chance.
Some pitbulls that have been socialized with chickens will often have some sort of a bond with the chickens that you keep too.
This can often cause the chickens to let the pitbull get closer to the chicken than it otherwise would due to the chicken thinking that it’s safe.
Due to being much closer than usual, this drastically increases the pitbulls chances of being able to catch a chicken in its jaws if it chooses.
Should You Keep Pitbulls And Chickens Together?
In our opinion, you shouldn’t keep pitbulls and chickens together or even let your pitbull or most other dog breeds be with your chickens unless they are on a leash.
Now, to be clear, this is our stance on the vast majority of dog breeds out there as most dogs still have high prey drives that can cause them to snap even if they are usually fine with chickens.
We see pitbulls get their unfair share of hate so just want to confirm that this is not a breed specific stance.
Although we did mention some nightmare stories earlier where a pitbull has suddenly decided its chicken friends are now a meal, this is common with most dog breeds.
Within the last week we have seen stories about a German short haired pointer killing all of the chickens in its backyard that it has played with for years and another story about a dachshund that randomly just decided to kill and start eating its favorite chicken.
No matter the breed, we don’t recommend that you allow your dog and your chickens to have much interaction as the risks are just not worth it.
But I Saw Pitbulls And Chickens Playing On The Internet!
Just because you saw pitbulls and chickens playing nice with each other online does not mean that this will be the case for your pitbull and your chickens.
As we have mentioned earlier in the article too, there are plenty of stories of dogs from a large number of different breeds seemingly being fine with chickens then suddenly, for no apparent reason, deciding to eat their chicken friend one day.
There are a number of theories as to why this happens but in our opinion, it’s just not worth the risk, especially when it is usually easy to keep your chickens and your pitbull separate to remove or at least reduce the risk levels as much as possible.
