Cat food for chickens?

www.poultryhub.org has a good article on poultry and the NON transfer of prions (to poultry). Poultry feed regularly has poultry by products as a protein (think ground feathers). If this is offensive to some, there are feeds that are animal protein free - such as Purina.

To the original poster, Manna Pro has a showbird conditioner that you add to their regular feed as a supplement. I do not exhibit due to job constraints however, I do use Manna Pro all year round for my breeding stock. There are a couple of good threads on here on bringing birds to show condition.

Oregon Blues said:

I don't feed any exhibition chickens, but my exhibition ducks get a 20% poultry food, oyster shell, greens, flax seed, and a very very tiny little sprinkle of dry cat food.

20% protein is plenty of protein. The flax seed is oil producing and I give it for oil on the feathers. My ducks feel armor plated, their feathers are so hard and well oiled. The cat food is NOT for extra protein; it is used as a source of animal protein.

Perhaps show chickens need extra protein while they are growing a new crop of feathers, but even for growing feathers 20% should be plenty of protein. If your birds can not grow feathers with 20% protein, perhaps you should add some genetics for better feathering.

I'm feeding an expensive dry cat food right now because it was on sale for a very good price. Normally, I buy the cheap brand that is made of fish meal and a lot of grain. I want the ducks to have fish and the grain is fine for them (not great for cats, though). If you don't want the chickens eating fish, then you can buy cheap dry cat food made from meat meal.

I suggest that you only feed cat food, or dog food, as a small part of the diet. More like a daily treat than a meal.

I don't know why you want an enormous amount of protein, but you can buy turkey/ game bird feed that is 28% protein. I use it for the first week with ducklings and I use it to start Cornish Cross chicks. It's made for poultry, so should be balanced nutrition.

For good feathering on show chickens, I suspect it is more important to limit the time they spend in the sun and to keep dirt off of their feathers. Also house them so that other birds don't peck their feathers.

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Great post! I had a cat that ran away and now I'm stuck with a bag of cat food. Reading this makes me feel it's okay to give the chickens a little bit of it as a snack. I believe I'll check the sodium content before giving it to them though.

psycoforsilkies said:

Ok i am looking for a cat food to supplement for my chickens, what brands are others feeding?

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I use Purina ONE kitten chow, or Purina Naturals. Make sure that the shapes of the kitten food are round so they can eat them easily.

LaynaDon95 said:

I would hesitate to give cat food to chickens because is contains chicken... Blech. I don't think it would harm them at all just... It seems so wrong. If it was my only option then sure, but it's not so I'm not feeding it to mine.

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Chickens are omnivores and can be cannibalistic. If you don't like the fact of them eating foods with chicken products, you can try a food with fish products.

showinbirds said:

A WELL BALANCED FEED FOR CHICKENS IS A 16% PROTEIN. TOO MUCH PROTEIN CAN DAMAGE THEIR FEATHERS.I USE WHEAT, CORN, OATS, PELLETS AND SUNFLOWER SEEDS FOR MY SHOW BIRDS. I MIX A LITTLE BIT OF DRY CAT FOOD IN TO BRING THE PROTEIN COUNT UP. I HAVE HAD VERY GOOD RESULTS WITH THIS MIXTURE.

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CAN YOU PLEASE NOT REPLY IN ALL CAPS!?!?! THIS IS REALLY ANNOYING TO COME ACROSS WHEN I AM TRYING TO READ ON FORUMS!

all cat and dog foods are not of the same recipe !!!

If the hi protein you are getting in cat or dog food is from soybeans then you are wasting your money . \You need to look carefully at the ingredients in cat and dog foods as some are worthless .

I look for number one ingredient -meat meal , Salmon meal , fish meal , Pork meal , lamb meal and etc for the top protein products(note that if the first listed items is not a meal then that means it is consisting of a lot of water- meal simply means the meat has the moisture removed from it).

I have noticed some good pet foods use animal by-products (feathers is not what they mean 99% of the time) but it is made of hearts , livers , skin ,bone ,etc which is actually better in proteins , fats and nutrition than just meats .
In watching a dog or any wild animal kill and eat (say a chicken-sorry) you will notice that the first thing they eat is the internals (what we call by-products) so we learn from them .

I've found several good dog foods with 24% protein and 20% fat (yes fat is as important as protein) costing in the range of $25 up to $35 for 50 lb bags .
We use them plus a ($50 -33 lb) bag of a very good dog food to feed our show dogs (papillons) .
We did feed them over the last few years(raw & cooked) chicken , beef , pork , beef hearts , beef liver, eggs , carrots , fruits , greens , garlic , (ah you get the picture) we have a grinder that will grin it all including chicken bones )(which they need)

Back to chickens you can use an inexpensive ground beef ........ they will love you for it (go absolutely crazy for it) just give to them raw making sure each one gets some .
I have also boiled beef liver & hearts then crumble mix it with a bit of start & grow (once again this is a Warning so be prepared as =They Will Love You for this !!!!

Shannon

What's interesting on this thread.... A lot of health rants, but no real experience of bad things happening to chickens fed cat food regularly.

My cousin's chickens are free range and are only fed cat food. The yolks of their eggs are the tastiest and most beautiful orange I have ever seen.

My hens get cat food when I run out of mash. Sometimes I'll feed it for a week until I get a chance to go to the feed store. I free range them 3+ times a week. They're healthy, shiny, and are egg laying machines.

My point is, I have never seen any adverse effect of feeding large amounts of low quality cat food. Maybe this is because both flocks in both situations free ranged a lot. I'm not sure. You should experiment for yourself and not let the internet control your life! Good luck and happy egg hunting!

rmh0508 said:

I am not sure if this applies to chickens but I do know that with dogs, horses and the like when you feed too much protein it will actually cause more harm then good. Their bodies can only use so much protein and the left over just goes out the other end and muscle problems are one thing to watch out for. Like I said I don't know if it applies to the chickens but I don't think I would be feeding only cat food or dog food to them.
Chickens I would think would require different amounts of vitamins or minerals then a dog or cat. Someone please correct me if I am wrong tho...

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Correct!

JerseyGiantfolk said:

I feed my chickens some cat food, cat treats work to with showmanship, but because my chickens are show chickens i feed 10% of a special mix (like calf manna and cat food+oyster shell, sunflower seeds) it makes black chickens feathers way more vibrant and rich. Calf Manna and Kitten Food works with my chickens and they love it too.

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I know this thread is old but can you possibly give the recipe for the special mix that you give your show birds? I understand that it's 10% of the total feed and I see the ingredients but what are the proportions of those ingredients. Thanks in advance!!!

littlethorn said:

2nd this - when I was a kid, my dad used to give our ducks cat and dog food in addition to their feed as well because he always said it would make their feathers nice

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My Uncle used to give his Chickens and Guineas (I know I spelled that wrong) handfuls of the catfish pellets for the fish pond as treats. They went crazy for it!!!