Can Chicks and chickens live off only eating cooked oatmeal, fruit and vegetables?

[Gio0203]

Can Chicks and chickens live off only eating cooked oatmeal, fruit and vegetables?

 

[sloanbychoice]

The question of whether they can live on it is not the right question in my opinion. They can survive on it. But the real question is how healthy you want your flock to be.
Do you want healthy chickens that will live a long time? Do you mind if they start becoming ill due to nutrition issues? Do you want to prevent illnesses?
Those are your questions.
Anything can “live” on a poor diet.
But the better option is to provide a complete feed that has all the nutrients they need. Protein for feather growth, calcium for egg laying, vitamins for stamina and disease fighting.

 

[SueT]

Proper nutrition is needed for optimal growth and egg production.
Can you not get chicken feed?

 

[paintedChix]

Did your feed store close down due to what's going on?

I can't answer on chicks - though I'd listen to above.

If you have cat food, it can supplement the older chickens protein requirements for a short time (and our outdoor cats have to fight the free range bantams to get their own food - the chickens were winning so we changed when/how we fed the cats)

Eggs fed back to the chickens works too. Some folks cook them first - to prevent egg eating and for protection against bacterial issues. I've never had an issue with egg eating, so I generally just toss eggs back to them. Woof - wouldn't want to be between them and their tossed eggs!

While area around us are on lockdown, we've been able to get fresh produce w/o issues (my garden last year didn't work, so little frozen/saved. family sure was glad we had a TP before this all went down). The birds get what we don't eat & if we don't finish something (my grandkids are WEIRD about leftovers), I'm just feeding it to them the next morning. Better than putting it in the compost pile after it goes moldy in fridge. I'm getting ready to process some of our excess roosters and some of the byproducts will be cooked and be split between dogs, cats and chickens. Normally I wouldn't feed that to the chickens, but our feed store called and said my order for Monday wouldn't be the same number of bags as I usually get. I am also weed eating areas that have popped up with grasses/flowers & weeds. Will be giving the birds as much as I can gather while still working full time... The plants that I planted for the birds that were perennial are growing - not ready for produce yet. I didn't get lettuces done this winter/spring like I'd planned on, either.

IF you still have chicken feed available - maybe start fermenting it. Some say that's good, some say it's not. I know that it's not a real do-able option for us right now. Better than oatmeal (oatmeal is on my list of DO NOT OVERDO, but I can't remember why right now - I want to say it blocks things so that your chicken can not utilize the other nutrients that it does have access to. There is a scientific name for it...diggity dog, now I have to go and look it up!). Edited to add - Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything bad on it, but I know I had something bad on it. Well, follow less is more philosophy.

If you have garden seeds - plant them like I am. Now. You can even grow things in your chicken feed bags, LOL.