Serama Indoor Pet - Managing Smell?

(If this question is in the wrong section please move it to a better one if possible)

Hello,

I recently purchased a Serama Chicken and he's awesome but the smell of his droppings is stinking up the whole house. How do I control the smell? I keep and breed pigeons and have most of them indoors and they have little to no odor so I wasn't expecting this sort of thing when I bought this bird. I love him and I don't want to be forced to get rid of him by the other people I share this house with.

Here he is, I know he's probably not a "true" Serama due to his posture but I don't know what else to call him. Maybe a Japanese Bantam?

I let him out everyday to walk around, he's extremely tame. My friend who raises chickens recommended diatomaceous earth and pine shavings and removing the mesh floor.

Hello!

I have 2 house chickens, a serama and a sebright. They do not produce an excessively bad odor. How much time is he in the cage and out of it? What is he eating?

My set up consists of a bird cage with no mesh/wire floor and puppy pads on the bottom. My birds spend very little time in it, usually they run around with diapers on but when I am not going to be home for a long time or overnight they go in there. Do you use diapers on him?

Switch to the puppy pads and clean the cage every single day. Scrap the mesh. It may have poo sticking to it and keeping smells.

You could also put in a cage tray and try pine shavings. You may have luck with those.

Right now he's on Manna Pro Gamebird/Showbird feed. I intend to get pellets to mix into it this Saturday. I only have had him since Sunday. I don't use diapers, I just keep an eye on him and collect anything he drops immediately. So far it's for roughly 15-20 mins a day that I've been able to let him out so far, I work full time and have a very busy schedule. I do intend to build something larger for him to hang out in though. I am also going to get him a hen very soon so he's not lonely while I'm away.

The droppings are getting stuck in the mesh so I intend to swap it for 1'' x 1/2'' this weekend so it doesn't get caught as easily. If that doesn't work I will be taking the suggestion with the tray and the shavings. I have a few options on my plate but I am extremely new to chickens so I figured I'd ask people who have more experience. I'm reluctant to remove the mesh altogether because I feel like it keeps the birds' feet very clean.

Do chickens show affection for each other? Do they prefer to be in flocks? What is an ideal cage size for a pair? Ideal food? I will be adding grit and oyster shells soon. Pigeons I know like the back of my hand but chickens seem to be less intuitive for me lol. They're an entirely different beast and so far I like it a lot.

Thank you for reply!

Eric

Since he will be spending most of his time in there shavings are a better choice for bedding.
They do bond and show affection. My two despite both being cockerels are bonded very closely and will follow each other and us from room to room. They distress call if they are worried for the other one and can't find him and will crow from across the house to track each other down. They prefer to live with other chickens yes. They are very social.

Since he is male he does not need oyster shell. An all flock pellet is best for him to eat. If you get a female then a dish of shell should be provided.

He's adorable, whatever he is.
I can only help wth a few questions.

No oyster shell for him, that's for egg layers.

Yes to grit.

Everyone will want to see poop pics to confirm they are normal and not extra smelly from a health issue.

In my opinion I'd give him pine shavings with a handful of SweetPDZ(a horse stall deodorizer) mixed in, and ditch the wire floor. Then his activity will keep droppings covered over and help with odor. If you really want that floor I'd replace the papers with an inch of SweetPDZ and kitty litter scoop it to clean.

That's awesome, the guy I purchased him from only had two roosters and I figured having two roosters would certainly result in fighting so I only purchased him. I figured the oyster shells would be only for the hen, for egg laying purposes. Do you think the cage is big enough? It's hard to take an accurate photo that displays the perspective correctly but he seems fairly small in there. Of course bigger is always better but it doesn't seem too cramped. It's 18'' x 24'' x 18''. As you can see by the picture of him in my hand, he's extremely small. Also, what brand do you recommend? I will be stopping by an Agway and want to get the best quality stuff I can.

Eric

Here is my caging set up. Keep in mind they are not there a lot or it would need to be bigger. Its like their bedroom.

My friend has three house chickens 1 silkie and 2 matronly serama hens. They sleep caged but, have the run of the house during the day. She just keeps an eye on them and cleans up any mess as soon as it happens. Her home does NOT smell bad. She doesn't want to fuss with diapers since it takes a lot longer to change them than just clean up the mess.

You might try sprinkling Stall dri ( a stable product) over pine shavings in the cage.

Have you checked out "people with house chickens." Lots of ways to raise them - see what works for many others.

There's a Facebook group too. Crazy house chicken lady and friends. Good group.