Feeding Oatmeal Hazards

[JennySkarsten]

So I love to spoil my girls and feed them a bowl of warm oatmeal on a cold winter day. They gobble it up and wipe there sticky oatmeal beaks on the straw and pick it off of each other as it flies everywhere. A few days ago we had such a cold morning and after they ate the oatmeal one of my EE was cleaning oatmeal off the other 2 EE beards. It looked so cute as they stood face to face, one picking at the others beard. Well, not so cute as when I went out to check on them the next day the 2 EE beards were gone and even one had her ear muff missing. Oh no, does this mean that I can't feed them oatmeal any more?

 

[sunflour]

Why not try serving the oatmeal on a tray or dish…so it won't be deep enough to get on their faces. I have given mine on a low tray and they only get it on their beaks.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

So I love to spoil my girls and feed them a bowl of warm oatmeal on a cold winter day. They gobble it up and wipe there sticky oatmeal beaks on the straw and pick it off of each other as it flies everywhere. A few days ago we had such a cold morning and after they ate the oatmeal one of my EE was cleaning oatmeal off the other 2 EE beards. It looked so cute as they stood face to face, one picking at the others beard. Well, not so cute as when I went out to check on them the next day the 2 EE beards were gone and even one had her ear muff missing. Oh no, does this mean that I can't feed them oatmeal any more?

A better way imho is to leave off the warm part and just feed them Rolled Old Fashion oatmeal without the cooking.

Because chickens don't have a real stomach, all of their food first goes to the chicken's crop. The crop is a food pouch that rests just under the skin and high up on the right hand breast. There is little good to be gained by feeding hens warm oat meal because all the heat from cooking is dissipated long before the gruel ever makes it into the hens' gut. But warm oatmeal is a messy thing for any animal to eat, especially an animal like chickens who don't have hands with opposable thumbs like humans do. Save the cooked oatmeal for your children's and your grandchildren's breakfast.

A much better way is to widely sprinkle raw rolled oats (rolled oats are already partially cooked) or steel cut oats, or hominy grits, (hominy grits are also precooked) in or on top of your hens litter thus encouraging them to work and scratch for every bit, this will warm them up better and quicker than anything that you or I can ever feed and it gives your chickens much needed Winter exercise because they must hunt, search, and scratch for every morsel.

 

[tjo804]

I bet if you mixed a bit of layer crumbles with the warm oatmeal it would not be as sticky.

 

[JennySkarsten]

Thank you all. The oatmeal was in a dish but the beards always gets food on them and water too. Will try mixing with something like yogurt or applesauce and not cooking then maybe it won't be so sticky.

 

[Kendrain]

I scramble eggs and throw oatmeal in there. And a bit of granulated garlic or fresh minced garlic. And it hasn't been sticky. Crumbly so they scratch around for it.

 

[DDRanch]

I let the oatmeal cool a bit, spread out and serve on several paper plates. I think the paper absorbs some of the liquid. Course you have to pick up the plates when they are done otherwise they will tear them up.

Scrambled eggs as Kendrain has suggested work well too.

 

[JennySkarsten]

Thank you. I might try this as they love their scrambled eggs too.

 

[JennySkarsten]

I might try this also. Thank you.