Is Cassava really toxic?

[EddieSalita]

Hi,

Long time reader, first time poster.

I haven't seen this topic for a little while, nor discussed in too much depth.

I live on a couple acres in subtropical qld, Australia. Wife and I recently got 10 young point of lay white and black australorp hens after a few years without chooks. We moved them into our food forest. Chicken heaven basically.
I have been long aware that cassava leaves can be an excellent supplement for chooks. But of course it must be dried or cooked due to the cyanogenic glycosides.
Without thinking too hard, the food forest has a couple cassava plants in it. I thought it should be OK, they can't reach the leaves, and if they show too much interest, i will remove them. Also, chooks don't really eat things they shouldn't be eating if there is plenty other things they prefer. There is unlimited acess to mulch, compost, grass, weeds, pigeon pea, moringa, desmanthus, adlay grass/millet, scratch grain, warrigal spinach, qld arrowroot, brazilian spinach, guava, mulberry, a mix of laying and pullet pellet, bugs..... as I said, it's chicken heaven.
To my surprise I got home one day and they had completely stripped one of the cassava stems. About a small wheelbarrow full. They managed to climb it over and over until It sagged over and they stripped it bare. To the point where they even began stripping the bark from much of the stem. I thought they would be dead meat after that. But they were perfectly fine. There is another cassava just near the electric netting they cant get to. They will zap themselves repeatedly trying to get it. So I moved that one for now. Why do they choose the potentially toxic plant with such enthusiasm while having acess to so many other tasty treats.
I spoke to a workmate about it who has a property also, and is from Tanzania. He said feeding fresh cassava leaves was common practice in his homeland.
I'm aware of the studies online looking at the benefits of cassava leaf, and the mentions of the cyanogenic glycosides. However I've not been able to find much in the way of first hand accounts of people killing or making their hens sick from feeding them fresh, maybe no one is dumb enough to actually do it, maybe the levels in leaf isnt high enough to actually do harm?
I will stop for now, but will see if they go for some dry shredded leaf at a later time. But i will continue to research. My point and or question is, is it really that bad? My chickens are not only fine but thriving and seem to have a ravenous penchant for cassava, even considering all the other amazing foods they can acess. What is in it that's attracting them? There is something in it they desperately want to eat. Has anyome actually hurt their birds doing this?

Any experiences would be appreciated.

 

[NatJ]

No personal experience, but I was intrigued enough to go read the wikipedia article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava

It says some varieties of cassava have much higher levels of toxins than others.
It says farmers actually prefer the more toxic varieties, because pests don't eat them as much.
Maybe you've got one of the less-toxic varieties, and the chickens figured that out?

The article also says "cassava hay" has a good level of protein, so maybe that's why your chickens are going after the leaves? (Hay just being dried leaves, the protein is presumably there when they are green as well.)

 

[EddieSalita]

That's a good point. The grasshoppers seem to be quite fond of a little bit of a nibble. Maybe that's a sign.
The variety is a sweet type. Which means lower glycosides than the bitter types. From my research protein levels can exceed 30% in dried leaves. Being growing birds, maybe it's that simple.

 

[skeeeter]

Hi Eddie, there are two types of cassava, the bitter and the non-bitter. If yours is the non-bitter, you have no problems. There is just two things to remember when feeding raw cassava: Give them water BEFORE not After feeding it. This essentially means, don't feed it to them when they are thirsty because they will then go drink water and bloat. Don't put it in their coop. It rots into smelly mess in 2 days. Feed just enough for them to clean up or feed it where that rotting won't be in their space. Those are the only precautions. Cassava isn't like swtpotatoes and others, which just lay around for like a week to get finished. The leaves just pretty much dry up, though, so no problem there.

 

[EddieSalita]

Hi Eddie, there are two types of cassava, the bitter and the non-bitter. If yours is the non-bitter, you have no problems. There is just two things to remember when feeding raw cassava: Give them water BEFORE not After feeding it. This essentially means, don't feed it to them when they are thirsty because they will then go drink water and bloat. Don't put it in their coop. It rots into smelly mess in 2 days. Feed just enough for them to clean up or feed it where that rotting won't be in their space. Those are the only precautions. Cassava isn't like swtpotatoes and others, which just lay around for like a week to get finished. The leaves just pretty much dry up, though, so no problem there.

They always have heaps of water access. I discovered mine is the sweet type. I recently moved them to a new area. First thing they did was strip the few cassava plants of leaves below 3 feet off the ground and dig up all the tubers. It's hilarious watching them act like pogo sticks for several days getting all the leaves. They are still working on climbing vertical trunks.
I have it planted all over the place. It's hard to avoid. There is definitely something in it they really really want in their bellies. No ill effects I've noticed over a few months.
Maybe because they have to work for it they aren't over consuming?