cat food

[Franciee]

Hi can chickens eat cat food.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Ive read about giving chickens some dry cat food when they are in moult.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

This is in the treat section

* Regarding feeding CAT FOOD to chickens,

the following is from DLHunicorn in response to the listing of cat food in this Treats Chart: (A word to the wise, and thank you, DLHunicorn)

"You all know how I feel on cat food and I have posted the links and reasoning behind my objections several times ...it can potentially be detrimental to your birds health and even deadly in the right circumstances and for this reason I feel it should be left off the chart (as when you put it on it is as if you are condoning its use) I will repost here one of the sources for my objection:
http://www.omri.org/Amino_acids_livestock.html
..."While it is nutritionally essential, methionine excesses are far more toxic to poultry than similar excesses of tryptophan, lysine, and threonine (National Research Council, 1994). Force feeding methionine to excess can result in death to chicks (National Research Council, 1994). A dosage of 2 g / mature cat / day (20 to 30 g / kg dry diet) for 20 days induces anorexia, ataxia, cyanosis, methemoglobinemia and Heinz body formation resulting in hemolytic anemia (Maede, 1985). ..."​

 

[Frosty]

When I had a bunch of chickens running loose they were ALWAYS getting to the cats food. I put out dry food for the barn cats, and if the cats could get to it, so could the chickens. I tried hiding it and everything, but they managed to get to it. Most cat food has a lot of corn. I wouldn't give it to them as a main source of diet, but I don't think it hurts them in smaller quantities.

 

[KKluckers]

I give mine some dry cat food and quite a few breeders I know do. Even the wet stuff. I wouldnt make a sole diet of cat food though.

<--------- Never hurt my big black girl

 

[2manyhats]

Be careful with cat food. There is something in it (a trace element) that cats need, but that can be deadly to chickens. Search on this forum for it. Two of my chickens died last winter after eating too much.

I found the link to the treats chart that explains the toxicity.

The Treats Chart is here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/vie … eats_Chart

 

[spook]

I wouldn't think it would be a good idea due to the levels of sodium, chickens can die from to much salt.
I have one cat that has urinary crystals, one cause is sodium levels...We have had a cat die from Kidney failure while eating the moist (rubber erasers is what they look like) and that was due to sodium - probably something else too, but either way, when cats die from catfood, why do we feed it to our hens? If you put catfood down, do so 2 times a day, if they are hungry, they will show up for the food at the times you plan.
If you want to give your hens other types of foods, give them your table food, meat, veggie and fruit scraps. They are healthy for us, they will be for them- except processed foods.