night time poops

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ontimeborzoi

ontimeborzoi

Songster
11 Years
Nov 13, 2008
174
19
113
Northern Neck of Va
I was reading on another thread, since closed, that it is not normal for chickens to produce the truely heroic amounts of poop that they do when roosting. Is this true?! The writer was saying that the problem is our feed, that chickens are not vegetarians and yet we feed them strictly grain diets, and that the copious poop is from undigested, unutilized food.
I feed my dogs a lot of raw meat and bones and it has made an amazing difference in their general health, no more ear, skin or picky gland infections.
Are we feeding our chickens an inappropriate ( yet undeniably convenient ) diet??
I'm thinking on how to change up my feed, add cat food perhaps, and see what happens with the pooping thing.
 
Quote:
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That is the BYC "auto editor" changing those glands that dogs have in their rear to something less "offensive"
 
I don't know about the diet thing, I do know my chickens have free ranged all day every day in the past and they still pooped like crazy at night. I really don't think the feed is undigested or unutilized, though, because their poop is clearly...poop not just blobs of indigested feed.
 
It's perfectly normal for chickens to eliminate at night. This is why some folks have "drop boards". In the winter I send the girls to bed with a full crop so they digest during the night and stay warmer.

Bombs awwwwaaaaayyyyyy!
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Rancher
 
I don't think chickens should only eat meat and insects. When they free range and can eat anything they want, they choose to eat a wide variety of foods. They choose to eat grass, dark leafy greens, seeds, fruits and some vegetables, as well as lots of insects, worms, larva and the occasional lizard, mouse or small bird. That's a long list of foods that not only have a full range of vitamins and minerals, most have a lot of fiber in them. I don't think fiber is bad for chickens.

I think if you gave chickens all the insects, worms, larva and meat they wanted, they would still crave some of the other foods that provide nutrients that they need. They need more than meaty foods can provide and those other foods contain fiber. Fiber comes out as chicken poop.
 
I read that chickens do 60-90% of their pooping at night, which is pretty amazing given how much they poop throughout the day! I have a poop pit, and it is filling up fast these days...
 

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