CAT food for your chickens - YES or NO & why?

[SilkieMomma]

Most of my chickens sneak in the garage and eat the cat food all the time. Everyone seems just fine. (Makes the cats a little mad though

 

[flowerchild59]

Especially during the winter, I have a can of small nugget sized cat or dog food and toss a handful now and then to the flock of 24 hens. That way no body gets more than a bite or two but get a little supplemental protein when not much free ranging is to be had.

 

[KFox]

I have two barn cats and I feed them outside or in the barn. I have to move the location of the food daily or the chickens will eat all of it. I don't intentionally give it to them, but they aren't above stealing. I have one that is brave enough to put her head in the bowl while the cats are eating and steal. She flings pieces to the others.

My reason for not feeding it--My cats are overweight. I just assumed if my chickens were eating the same food, they would become overweight as well.

 

[flockof4]

When my hens were younger I would give them the occasional treat of dried cat food pellets soaked in water. The gobbled them up and never showed any signs of ill effect. I stopped after they all started laying eggs.

 

[riftnreef]

I also use some dry cat food in my show conditioning mixture. That protien boost helps a lot, but during the off seasons, they just get regular feed. With that, I never feed that mix to my layers, just no need for it and I would hate to see them go off layer pellets for cat food...

 

[catballou]

Good morning,
I was reading on a post yesterday about some people giving their chickens cat food. Enlighten me on the pros and cons of the cat food. My chickens do not like big pellets so I'm thinking of maybe grinding some dry cat food up just to see if they will like it. If you have used cat food for your chickens, please let me know.

 

[catballou]

I always gave my girls a couple of bites of my canned cat food when I fed the cat at night. They loved it and did fine.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

If they don't like pellets switch to crumbles