Food Scraps?

How often should you give them treat's or table scraps? Or how do you know what's too much?


"treats or table scraps" is pretty broad, so its hard to say really. Some people feed only what you might call scraps, while some never feed any.

whats important is that they are obtaining the nutrittion they need to be healthy and lay well, and whether they are depends on what the "treats" or "scraps" actually consist of and what if any foraged inputs they have have access to. In order to know this, you have to actually give it a bit of thought, research, and planning often.

I lnow a farmer who fed their chickens a diet that consisted entirely of "scraps", in the form of fish scraps, expired bread, various veggies, etc--but they had a specific formula that they adhered to to see that the diet was balanced. For those that dont wish to go the extra mile and give it that much care and thought, its generally recommended to limit "treats or scraps" to a minor portion of the diet to keep it balanced (and obviously avoid the artificial processed stuff and go easy on the salt and sugar).

but one of the great things about chickens is their ability to convert scraps into delicious eggs and meat, so many of us, such as myself, fall somewhere in between on this.
 
My chicks are 8and 9 weeks old. I tried giving them a couple table scraps and they were scared of them and covered them up in dirt. They we're scrambled eggs and strawberries. I had to remove them after a day as they were drawing flies. They loved the watermelon. Left only the green skin behind. My question is do they have to learn that table scraps are fine to eat? If I keep trying will they eventually figure out it's a good thing?
 
are you offering them regular feed free choice? If so, they do tend to be more picky. there is no reason why a chicken wouldnt eat eggs and fruit. yet another reason i dont recommend free feeding. by feeding once or twice a day on a regular schefule, they actually get a chance to be hungry sometimes, which makes them much more open to sampling new things. once they re used to being given more diverse things to eat, they will be much more interested in sampling whatver you offer in future, edpecially when theyre a little peckish. But they need the opportunity to learn that food is more than just crumbles or pellets first. imagine eating nothing but cereal for YOUR whole life, then seeing an apple for the first time--you wouldnt know it was food either!
 
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How old do my chicks have to be to get table scraps?? Mine are 5 weeks and just eating the feed the barn where i got them sold me and a little medicine and "immune booster" in their water.
 
Well, various people told me to feed the chicks medicated food (to protect sgainst illness i guess ) and this place didnt sell medicated food, they said they had medicine u put in their water. I am totally new to this do i just have been doing what they told me to! Also, he mentioned changing food was a big stressor and to do it slowly if changing feed. This is why i was worried about table scraps.... What should i give my 5 week olds as treats?
 
Well, various people told me to feed the chicks medicated food (to protect sgainst illness i guess ) and this place didnt sell medicated food, they said they had medicine u put in their water. I am totally new to this do i just have been doing what they told me to! Also, he mentioned changing food was a big stressor and to do it slowly if changing feed. This is why i was worried about table scraps.... What should i give my 5 week olds as treats?

I'd skip treats as they aren't really needed....if you really want to give them something special or something to do you can either free range them or build grow frames in the run for them to have green things to eat and also develop a nice, composting deep litter in the run that will attract bugs for them to hunt. Free ranging, the grow frames and the deep litter will do more to keep them healthy than any medicine out there.

Feeding kitchen scraps in moderation will not stress their digestive systems, though you might see a change in stool, it will only be temporary.

No need to feed medicine to chicks, though many recommend it, many more never do it and their flocks are fine. I've never given medicine to any chicks or chickens for 40 yrs and have never had illness in my flocks, so it's really not necessary.

Grow frames....you can plant just about any greens there, not necessarily just grass. There are many things you can plant to increase total nutrition and health for the flock and they would consider this more of a treat than most anything else unless it's just plenty of bug habitat and that can be done with the deep litter.



Deep litter..... this thread is the shorter one on deep litter and has a lot of info if you read it all: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/643302/results-from-first-year-with-deep-litter-method



Free ranging.....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/897953/keeping-chickens-free-range
 
"freezer camp"
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