Chickens eating styrofoam...

[slordaz]

Oyster shell is not the same as grit. It's for calcium to build healthy egg shells. Grit is used to break down food. Glad to hear everyone is fine. My cat eats styrofoam too given half a chance. I don't know why!

I think they just like to see how stressed they can make us and still get treats lol

 

[Claires Poultry]

I also discovered my ducks were eating Styrofoam just yesterday! It's weird, I don't understand why they do it. I have the Styrofoam out of their reach now, and I haven't seen any ill effects of it on my ducks. However, I still don't think they should be eating it.
Birds are weird sometimes!

 

[pennyJo1960]

No but my one biggest cat eats plastic bags if it is out he east the handles at least

 

[Al Gerhart]

Styrofoam can be eaten by meal worms and at least in the scientific studies they appear to do fine. Bacteria break it down inside their guts and they get some sort of nutrients out of it. Can't imagine meal worms could thrive on the diet long term but it seems it is fine when the meal worms are hungry enough. Nature has some incredible tricks, nearly anything can and will be eaten by something. I bet your chickens are going to be fine.

 

[MIchickenlady]

I lost one of my girls last winter to her eating pink insulation board.
I thought I was doing a good thing blocking a draft. I was shocked the next day to find her dead. I didn't think anything of her pecking at the board when I put it in, I thought she was just being curious. She ate quite a bit of it.
Never again.

 

[Folly's place]

Any insulation needs to be covered by plywood or something, and then don't leave a cavity for rodents to inhabit. Been there, done that!
Mary

 

[ValerieJ]

I used Styrofoam around the bottom of a dog kennel to use it as a brooder when the chicks were a few weeks old once. I wanted to give them a view instead of being cooped up in a tote. They started pecking at the Styrofoam immediately, so we immediately took it out and replaced it with wood. Luckily DH was home to help out with that or it would have been back to the tote for them. That being said, none of them got sick.

 

[linguini]

I lost one of my girls last winter to her eating pink insulation board.

Just wondering if you remember how much of the board your chicken ate ? Just discovered this morning one of our chicken ate a big chunk of the pink board - caught her in action.

The board was wrapped in heavy plastic at the bottom, but somehow she managed to get to the top that was not covered. About 1 cubic inch was missing.

I covered the board with utility tape entirely this morning after I saw her act. She seems to be acting normal, being flighty and active. Whatever was missing was probably ingested by her the last two days. I've try to check all the poops - no sign of pink stuff.

Should I be worried?

 

[Cecisflock]

My girls ate insulation while we were building the coop...

 

[azygous]

Most of the time, this insulation passes through and gets pooped out, usually within 24 hours. I would not leave things up to chance, though. Give her a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil to "grease the works". It can coat the insulation and help it move more smoothly through the gizzard and intestines.

Just as a note for your education on responses to scary things your chickens might eat, if you see a chicken swallow something sharp like glass or a metal screw or a staple, immediately give raw egg white, even if you need to syringe it into the chicken. This will help the sharp object slip through with the least chance of perforating the tissues.