Chickens addicted to cat food! Will a cat door keep them out?

[Squawkers]

Yeah sorry I just think giving them as much as they want is a bad idea. As smart as they are, cat food is candy to them…

 

[NatJ]

Yeah sorry I just think giving them as much as they want is a bad idea. As smart as they are, cat food is candy to them…

Candy for people is mostly sugar, with pretty much no other nutritional value (no protein, no vitamins or minerals.)

Cat food has quite a bit of protein, and all the vitamins & minerals a cat needs. That makes it much more nutritious than candy.

I think giving as much as they want could get expensive pretty quickly, but I would not expect the chickens to have any major issues if they have constant access to cat food (as in, no issues caused by what the cat food does to their diet.)

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Some of the past flocks I grew up with would find the cat food.

Various things we'd do...
- only feed when the birds weren't out (early morning, night)
- only feed what the cats would finish in x amount of time
- feed up high, out of the way (we fed on barrels *this was mostly to keep a dog from getting sick)

It'll be difficult if your chickens are... well...addicts, it sounds like
But if they can't see where the food is, they might not get as crazy.

If you can change where you feed, and have the food up high (assuming your cat can access it safely) that could help. Maybe?

 

[Perris]

Makes sense for older chickens, but younger chickens might have a harder time figuring out what is too much.

Younger chickens have instincts and appetites just as older chickens do, and they may indeed tell them to eat more protein, because they are growing their whole bodies!

I trust a chicken's instincts more than I trust any human to decide on the 'right' amount of anything for that chicken.

 

[MROO]

Ill just say in the many years that cat food has been a regular favorite treat for mine they never just don’t eat it

Mine will, too, even after a full meal. Cat food is right up there with mealworms ... chicken-crack!

 

[Squawkers]

I just saw this gif doing something else and thought of this thread

 

[BDutch]

My neighbours give their cats dry cat food only once a day, inside the house in the evening. After that they are locked in for the night.
In the afternoon if my chickens free range, one (hungry) cat always comes to eat from the chick feed.

I don’t know what goes into your cat food. But I doubt if its healthy food for chickens and I rather eat eggs from organic chicken feed and what they find in our garden, than eggs from undefined cat feed.

This is part of a translated article https://dier-en-natuur.infonu.nl/huisdieren/64384-honden-en-kattenbrokken-ingredienten.html

Spoiler: what goes into dog and cat feed

Amount of meat in the kibble
Most kibble contains 4 percent meat. And this is incredibly low for a carnivorous animal. The meat composition is often also vague: it's the waste meat that we humans don't want to eat. This is then processed into animal feed. Sometimes the packaging states: 4 percent meat (of which 97 percent is poultry). A quick glance might suggest the kibble contains 97 percent poultry. However, this isn't true: the kibble consists of slightly less than 4 percent poultry. (Namely, 97 percent of that 4 percent). So read the packaging carefully!

Price/Quality
A manufacturer can't make cheap kibble containing only meat. In principle, it can be said: the more expensive the feed, the more meat it contains. Because meat, including waste meat, is simply expensive. This is partly why the more expensive kibble is generally of a higher quality. But even this doesn't tell the whole story: you're also paying for the brand name, of course. A well-known brand can easily charge a bit more in price, because people will buy it anyway.

The Other 96 Percent
Now that we know that kibble often only contains 4 percent meat, you're probably wondering what's in the remaining 96 percent. This includes grains: corn or wheat, or usually beans. But also beet pulp or other waste grains. In any case, products that a dog or cat wouldn't naturally eat.

Sometimes rice is also added to the kibble, masquerading as lamb and rice. This is often white rice or broken rice, the waste product of white rice. While it's recommended for dogs with intestinal problems, it's better to prepare rice yourself or give them rice water to drink.

Not edible!
Let's be honest: if a dog or cat had the choice, they certainly wouldn't eat the unprocessed kibble. To ensure the animal eats it anyway, fats are added. Ever wondered where that used McDonald's frying oil goes? Right, it's on the dog and cat food. At least that way we know for sure that our pets are eating those nasty kibbles.

Somewhere else I have been reading the grains in the cat feed are boiled /heated to make it digestible for cats.

 

[NatJ]

This is part of a translated article https://dier-en-natuur.infonu.nl/huisdieren/64384-honden-en-kattenbrokken-ingredienten.html

Spoiler: what goes into dog and cat feed

Amount of meat in the kibble
Most kibble contains 4 percent meat. And this is incredibly low for a carnivorous animal. The meat composition is often also vague: it's the waste meat that we humans don't want to eat. This is then processed into animal feed. Sometimes the packaging states: 4 percent meat (of which 97 percent is poultry). A quick glance might suggest the kibble contains 97 percent poultry. However, this isn't true: the kibble consists of slightly less than 4 percent poultry. (Namely, 97 percent of that 4 percent). So read the packaging carefully!

Price/Quality
A manufacturer can't make cheap kibble containing only meat. In principle, it can be said: the more expensive the feed, the more meat it contains. Because meat, including waste meat, is simply expensive. This is partly why the more expensive kibble is generally of a higher quality. But even this doesn't tell the whole story: you're also paying for the brand name, of course. A well-known brand can easily charge a bit more in price, because people will buy it anyway.

The Other 96 Percent
Now that we know that kibble often only contains 4 percent meat, you're probably wondering what's in the remaining 96 percent. This includes grains: corn or wheat, or usually beans. But also beet pulp or other waste grains. In any case, products that a dog or cat wouldn't naturally eat.

Sometimes rice is also added to the kibble, masquerading as lamb and rice. This is often white rice or broken rice, the waste product of white rice. While it's recommended for dogs with intestinal problems, it's better to prepare rice yourself or give them rice water to drink.

Not edible!
Let's be honest: if a dog or cat had the choice, they certainly wouldn't eat the unprocessed kibble. To ensure the animal eats it anyway, fats are added. Ever wondered where that used McDonald's frying oil goes? Right, it's on the dog and cat food. At least that way we know for sure that our pets are eating those nasty kibbles.

It probably varies a bit by country.

In the USA, the label must list the ingredients in descending order by weight. Yes, the manufacturer can list same-weight ingredients in any order. So if the first two ingredients are "Chicken by-product meal, ground yellow corn," that means the amount of chicken by-product meal weighs at least as much as the amount of ground yellow corn.

It is pretty common to find bags of dog food or cat food saying "Real chicken is the first ingredient!" (Yes, I do check labels and sometimes find several grains in a row after the chicken, so I tend to assume that the amount of chicken is just barely greater than any one grain and much less than the combination of grains. But mathematically, most of them cannot go as low as the 4% meat mentioned in the article you quoted.)

Somewhere else I have been reading the grains in the cat feed are boiled /heated to make it digestible for cats.

Cooking grains makes them more digestible for people and for other animals too. I was under the impression that any kibble gets cooked as part of the manufacturing process, so I would already have assumed the grains are cooked by the time a cat or dog eats kibble.

 

[McChooky]

I slide the cat food tray under a big plastic stackable tote and the cat sneaks in the back to eat

 

[chooki]

I buy cat food for my chickens occasionally, the tuna ones. According to the labels, protein is only about 17%-20%, depends on the brand. Wholemilk powder is another protein source for them, the protein content in that is about 25%, but since chickens are lactose intolerant, I can only used it as 10% - 15% of their total feed.

Lean beef and pork have about 25% - 27% protein content, so when some chicken feed claim to have 20% - 30% protein content, I am like: how, is it mostly dried animal matter?