Chickens & milk!

[Tracy the chick]

Can chickens have milk? Ive been given one of my thinner chickens baby porrage made with water and she loves it along with the rest of the flock who steal a bit! But can i make it with milk?

 

[draye]

Definate yes.

 

[Animalian]

yes! even better is natural yogurt with all the probiotic goodness! The dairy will help your skinny girl put more weight on! And give all the other girls stronger eggs!

 

[shellybean40]

I feed mine milk when it starts to sour. They LOVE it!!

 

[Tracy the chick]

Thats great news, it looks like somethink of oliver twist made with water! They will have to wait till tomorrow now as they have all had there treat for today..Thanks guys...

 

[elmo]

Chickens like all birds lack the enzymes necessary to fully digest most dairy products. You can give a little bit, but too much will result in the runs. Interestingly enough, yogurt and some cheeses don't contain much lactose, which is the part the bird's digestive system can't break down.

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/dairy.html

Personally, whenever I want to supplement the diet of a chicken, I give it mashed up hardboiled egg. After all, eggs are nature's perfect food for chickens.

 

[ChickenMack]

I feed mine milk, when it has turned and yogurt. They loooove it. I have a BO who will jump for colby jack in my hand (no, I don't encourage it, she just sees it, runs for me and jumps for it before I can even think of giving it to the others). I look at it as just another benefit of having the chickens eat kitchen scraps.

 

[Chris09]

They should be fine if given milk, even though poultry cant digest lactose, poultry can benefit from some milk. I give my chicken raw milk from time to time.

International Ingredient Corporation Dustin Dean, Ph.D. and Kevin Halpin, Ph.D.
http://www.iicag.com/research summary.htm

Chris

 

[Tracy the chick]

Thanks guys i read both of them links and found them very interesting, i also learnt what i can and cant feed my african gray parrott... I think i might just stick to water in the porrage but give them priobotic yoghurt instead as it contains no lactose.. Cant believe how much ive learnt from BYC xxxx

 

[Mom2Five]

We live next door to a dairy farm where we get our fresh milk. I posted on another thread that my chickens LOVE the cream skimmed off the top of the milk.