Dehydrated food for chickens??? Can they eat this?

[Ruler of the Roost]

Ok, aside from the obvious fact that all store bought chicken feed is dehydrated, can I feed this to my birds? my mom went through a bit of a prepper-phase and dehydrated a BUNCH of food for shelf stability. It was dehydrated and then canned with desiccant. Nothing looks moldy or rotten, but only God knows how old it is… lord knows my mother can’t remember. From her scrawl on the lids looks like most of it is 2011-2012??? Maybe??? She’s finally purging all that stuff. There’s a good bit here and a good bit more where this came from… probably a years worth of greens fruit and grains for the birds… there’s corn, peas, bananas, raisins, apples, raisins, , broccoli, mixed veggies, etc…what do yawl think?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Not knowing, I would go with “if I wouldn’t eat it, I won’t feed it to chickens.”

At a minimum, even if it’s safe, much of the nutritional content is long gone.

Note: I’ll give chickens plenty of fresh food that I wouldn’t eat - we’ve found that they like burnt bacon. I’m talking about undated but ancient home-canned food.

 

[Ruler of the Roost]

That is exactly why I am so on the fence about it. I think I’ll just toss it and save the jars.

 

[kattabelly]

Do you have anything like a compost heap that the chickens have access to? If I was feeling cautious but not really worried about something, I'd probably chuck it in there and rely on whatever instinct usually keeps them alive when they're digging through compost heaps.

Though tbh I'd try all that stuff you've posted myself, and be more worried about whether age had made it taste awful than whether it was going to kill me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The dehydrated part would not bother me. There was something going around on social media a few years back about throwing rice at weddings. Supposedly songbirds that ate the dried rice would die from the rice swelling up on their crop. Totally false. The risk is from people slipping on the rice if it is on a hard surface like a sidewalk or a wooden floor. If you are concerned about it being too dry, wet it.

Do you have anything like a compost heap that the chickens have access to? If I was feeling cautious but not really worried about something, I'd probably chuck it in there and rely on whatever instinct usually keeps them alive when they're digging through compost heaps.

Though tbh I'd try all that stuff you've posted myself, and be more worried about whether age had made it taste awful than whether it was going to kill me.

This aligns with my thoughts. If it is not moldy and does not smell awful I'd probably offer it to them but in small amounts. More like treats than as a replacement for a majority of their feed. I'd probably taste some of it myself. Some seeds stored in pyramids in dry conditions for thousands of years will still sprout. Not that often but it has happened. I'm not that concerned about them losing all of their nutritional value. But they could lose some.

That is exactly why I am so on the fence about it. I think I’ll just toss it and save the jars.

A reasonable approach.