Can chickens get diabetes?

[undine]

I feed my chickens cooked rice mixed with a little bit of chicken meal EVERDAY...morning and afternoon. It's what my parents would feed them back when they were farmers in china. They fed them uncooked rice so i dont know if thats just as unhealthy as cooked rice. I dont want to feed them uncooked beause i read it causes impacted crops. Will my chickens get diabetes from this?

I feed this to my chickens everyday:
Rice mixed with a little bit of chicken meal (chicken feed*?)

I also feed them this too ;o almosttttt everyday:
Bok choy (a leafy green vege)

 

[sourland]

Rice and a little bit of chicken meat is far from a balanced diet. If your birds free range they may be able to pick up some of the nutrients they need to thrive, but a commercial or diversified diet would be far better for them.

 

[Eggcessive]

I think it is bad for them because it doesn't meet the protein and nutrient needs. Chicken feed is balanced and depending on whether you use a layer or flock raiser feed, the protein level is 16 to 20%. I have never heard of chickens having diabetes, but they will start feather picking and not laying as well as they should. Rice also is fairly constipating if that is the largest part of your diet.

 

[undine]

Rice and a little bit of chicken meat is far from a balanced diet. If your birds free range they may be able to pick up some of the nutrients they need to thrive, but a commercial or diversified diet would be far better for them.

haha no way would i feed them chicken meat! its a little bit of chicken meal.. or is it called chicken feed? i always get it mixed up

 

[undine]

I think it is bad for them because it doesn't meet the protein and nutrient needs. Chicken feed is balanced and depending on whether you use a layer or flock raiser feed, the protein level is 16 to 20%. I have never heard of chickens having diabetes, but they will start feather picking and not laying as well as they should. Rice also is fairly constipating if that is the largest part of your diet.

Yeah, that is why i mix in some chicken feed with it.

 

[Chicken_Pauper]

Are you raising meat birds to eat or egg layers for the eggs?
If you go to the feed store or Walmart, etc. and buy a chicken feed, a bag of chicken food made for chickens to eat... (pet department) and you mix it with less than half cooked rice. Add some fresh veggies now and then, they may be fine.
If they are getting protein in their food (read the nutrition label), and seem healthy, are growing, laying, active, diabetes is not something I have heard about them getting, but chickens can have health problems or not lay eggs due to poor diets.
Also, if they are out and running around to eat bugs and worms and such, so much the better.
Chickens you are going to eat get a different food to grow than chickens you are raising to lay eggs and you are eating the eggs, not the chickens.
Also, do you give any oyster shell for calcium on the side?
Do they eat their own eggs, before you can collect them?
"Scratch" is the minimal feed for chickens. (not really healthy enough alone)
I have laying hens and feed laying mash mixed with a custom blend for all chickens as well as Oyster shell on the side and free ranging for bugs.