- Oct 13, 2008
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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.