? about chickens & oats

[allpeepedout]

I feed dry raw whole horse oats to the chickens daily, about a cup + for 7 birds, as a high-quality, high-protein alternative to scratch, at about $9-10 per 40 lb. bag. My chickens go crazy for oats. I presume that the oat hull is a healthy fiber, similar to what they might get if they were out foraging, eating grass seeds, beetles, the occasional baby mouse, etc.

The oats "appear" to have been digested well when they come out the other end.

 

[newchick13]

Yesterday my girls had a breakfast of champions...

steel cut oats cooked with milk and a splash of half and half with some honey and freeze dried strawberries. I know it was good....they got my leftovers!

 

[dvdbuchholz]

in the winter I plan to mix sunflower seeds into their feed we are growing I was told to feed sparingly can anyone elaborate on that?

 

[ChicKat]

in the winter I plan to mix sunflower seeds into their feed we are growing I was told to feed sparingly can anyone elaborate on that?

anyone know the answer to this?

 

[centrarchid]

anyone know the answer to this?

I try to feed no more than 10% of a diet as any given feedstuff. You can still give 10% each of BOSS, oats, whole corn, and millet making so intact grains represent 40% of total but you must make certain all nutritional needs still being met. In my setting roughly half the diet is represented by whole grains with other half coming either from forages or a high protein gamebird feed.

 

[Chris09]

Sunflower Seeds (Black Oil and Striped) are very high in indigestible fiber and in turn should be feed sparingly.
I my self have cut Black Oil Sunflower Seed back to about 5% of there total diet, that would be 5 lbs of black oil sunflower seed to 95 lbs of feed/mix.

 

[centrarchid]

Fiber content should not be an issue unless other nutrients are particularly low. If your base diet is something like a layer ration where formulation is intended as the sole nutritional source, then dilution of the protein content by addition of a high fiber item that is also lower in protein can result in an overall reduction in bird’s protein intake. Most knowledge based on controlled experiments involves the base diets that are very close to the minimum needed to give good production (least-cost diets). If you are in the habit of using more nutrient dense formulations with higher protein contents then increasing fiber is much less likely to be problematic. In some cases upping fiber content can be beneficial with otherwise richer diets. In some instances fiber can interfere with availability of other nutrients, especially minerals like phosphates, when such are otherwise only minimally available in the formulation.

My free-range birds consume far more fiber than just about any confined birds, especially when later consume at least some feed or grains yet the nutritional status of the free-range birds is very difficult to match by birds fed even the richest formulations. The birds thus can compensate within limits for high dietary fiber levels. In my case the birds seem to target animal prey preferentially (also a source of fiber) and simply eat more when dietary fiber levels are otherwise high. Chickens are well suited for processing fiber and evidence for abundance of its intake can be found in feces as well as in the crop.

 

[Chris09]

It's not that it is high in fiber it is because it is high in indigestible fiber.
Like the hulls of oats the shells of sunflower seed are very hard to digest and can stay in the digestive system for a week or better. (one of the reasons gamefowl raisers feed only soaked oats)
Feeding to much of either (or any other hard to digest indigestible fiber) could cause digestive problems and can cause crop bounds.

 

[chickyen]

Sour the oats in water with ACV, brown sugar, and Red Cell added.

Do you NEED other things besides water? What will it effect if those things are not used? I've been feeding Quaker rolled oats every now and then, not cooked. Should I try cooked or soured?(or both) Also, I have a guinea pig, and I bought mini dried corn cobs for her but she didn't like them, so I pulled off the corn and gave it to my chickens.. they liked it. Should I give them more of the corn?

 

[Chris09]

@chickyen

Here is a very simple recipe -
Take a plastic container with a tight fitting lid and add the amount of whole or clipped oats (not rolled or quaker type oats) that you will be using for one days feeding in it.
Add enough water to cover the oats about 2 inches and cover.
The next day a good bit of that water should be soaked up and you will have to add more water to cover the oats again.
Keep doing this until the oats don't soak up anymore water.
When the oats stop soaking up water it is done and is ready for feeding.

*Note - You can substitute some or all the water with apple juice. (the good stuff thats unfiltered and looks like they ground the tree up with the apples)