Can chickens eat spicy food?

[Girly White Silkie]

One time, when I was in the Flock Talk channel, the owner gave her parrots hot peppers to eat.

 

[Kusanar]

Yes, they can, in fact people use red pepper flakes in the feed to help with internal parasites.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

...and to protect the feed from rodents.

Sprinkling cayenne pepper will discourage those rascaly rascals from eating the chicken feed while the chickens don't mind a bit.

Cayenne has shown some effectiveness in flushing worms (but not killing them).

So yeah, sprinkle away, feed away.

LofMc

 

[Bridger Davis]

Yes, they can, in fact people use red pepper flakes in the feed to help with internal parasites.

That's interesting. How much do they give and can this be done for ducks too??

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I don't use any set formula. I just sprinkle until it looks "rusty."

It only takes a tablespoon or two in a gallon feed.

LofMc

 

[Kusanar]

That's interesting. How much do they give and can this be done for ducks too??

As LofMc stated, it doesn't kill the worms in great measure, more of a "I have a healthy bird that likely has a low grade worm load since most birds do, lets give some pepper to help keep the worm load down" type situation. This is not reliable or effective enough to use if you have a known worm problem that is causing the birds issues, just a prevention/very mild wormer type deal.

I don't know for certain if it's ok for ducks, but I believe probably.

 

[azygous]

Spices won't hurt the chickens, but the flavors are certainly wasted on them, because chickens only possess a very limited number of taste receptors.

They completely lack the one for capsaicin. It's effectiveness as a wormer is overblown as is touting it as a stimulant for egg laying.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

X2
Capacin is a very mild wormer that is more for between wormings to help hold it down a bit rather than treatment...I use it mostly to keep rodents out of feed which it does a decent job of.

 

[Girly White Silkie]

Yes, they can, in fact people use red pepper flakes in the feed to help with internal parasites.

Ok

 

[Girly White Silkie]

...and to protect the feed from rodents.

Sprinkling cayenne pepper will discourage those rascaly rascals from eating the chicken feed while the chickens don't mind a bit.

Cayenne has shown some effectiveness in flushing worms (but not killing them).

So yeah, sprinkle away, feed away.

LofMc

Why to protect the feed from rodents?