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I think it's best to always keep their commercial feed available even if you're giving them something else.

Excellent point. A chicken is less likely to overeat something in an inappropriate manner if it's the only option they have, or one of very few options, than if it's just one thing available in the midst of abundance. :)

It's very different to toss a whole, tired cabbage to 20-40 birds than to 6-8 birds. :) *Personally* I don't feed people food to animals. If my birds are getting a cabbage it's because it's too wilted even for cooking or riddled with cabbage worm damage. They get trimmings and peelings rather...

When people ask about "boredom busters" I like to suggest that they give their chickens more opportunity to engage in natural chicken behaviors. Foraging is a natural behavior, of course, but a handful of pellets thrown into the bedding will encourage that. :)

I don't know. I just feed mine all-flock because it's handier than making up a batch of the mix my sister uses. I'm just keeping mine alive until I feed them -- a few per bird every week or so. However, they do keep breeding so I must be doing something right.

She has a special feed mix she makes up for them, but my mini-colony live on all-flock feed with random fruit for hydration -- usually the good parts of something that was going bad. IIRC, in the wild they're mainly fruit eaters but, as she often says, they're roaches -- they're not picky.

My sister, who keeps reptiles, breeds Dubia roaches and tells me that they have a much superior protein to fat ratio. My chickens love them. They are also willing to forage in the bedding for a handful of pellets. :eek:

I generally don't consider fruit and vegetable scraps "treats" -- because they'd be eating all the plant material they wanted when foraging in the run. BUT, I don't overdo it by offering massive amounts (well, maybe a LOT of cucumber peels when I'm making pickles or plum skins when I'm making...