GLuten free feed??????

[galanie]

They most certainly can. They probably won't eat the shells though. But if they do, then it should be fine.

 

[sodamancer]

So ya'll asked for an update.....We have been feeding table scraps, seeds from pumpkins, sunflowers, and bird mixes. Lentil and field peas, milo, ........ left over pumpkins squashes ect. No commercial layer feed or wheat/rye/other glutonous feeds and out of 6 chickens we get 5 eggs a day. It was 4 but one finished her molt.

 

[wiseandhappy]

As far as gluten sensitivity coming through a chicken eating glutenous grains, I see this as very easily happening. If humans have a difficult time breaking down gluten proteins, animals would logically, too. Obviously other animals have immune systems that react to foreign looking proteins, but, like us, many are not able to fully deal with the very long-chained gluten proteins such as gliadin, a 33-chain amino acid. Gluten tends to be sticky so could lodge on surfaces but it logically could also cause gut deterioration and eventually pass into and through a chicken's bloodstream and lodge in a developing egg.

Peptides in the bloodstream is very common, for example, in people with schizophrenia, 95% of whom have very high levels of polypeptides (multiple chained amino acids) in their blood. I do not know specifically about the process of forming an egg, but with a fairly new (evolutionarily speaking) introduced long-chained amino acid like glutenins in grains, these poor animals may be similarly or even more unable to break them down and thus gluten grains could be wreaking havoc in various parts of the animals' systems, plus going right into the eggs, urine, and other 'products' of the hens.

I'm looking for gluten-free commercial bird food myself. Why would we want to give something that is not good for us to animals, as if they are dumping grounds for our lower quality or bad food...?

I hope the above information and theorizing makes sense. The question I would pose is: why wouldn't gluten be a problem to an animal since we are finding that over 90% of humans have gluten sensitivity of some sort?

I would like to learn more about the subject of birds, dogs, cats, deer, etc. and any problems they have with gluten in wheat, rye, barley, etc. -- the gluten grains. Anybody out there an 'expert' on this?

 

[myfivehens]

I'm so glad to see this thread! This is something I'm researching now. I'm gluten intolerant and I react to eggs from hens fed gluten grains, the reaction is not as bad as actually eating gluten itself but I definitely react. I also don't do well with grain fed meats. I also don't want to spend an arm and a leg feeding our hens though

 

[myfivehens]

So ya'll asked for an update.....We have been feeding table scraps, seeds from pumpkins, sunflowers, and bird mixes. Lentil and field peas, milo, ........ left over pumpkins squashes ect. No commercial layer feed or wheat/rye/other glutonous feeds and out of 6 chickens we get 5 eggs a day. It was 4 but one finished her molt.

Is this still working out for you?

 

[myfivehens]

I am aware that eggs do not contain gluten themselves but neither does my breastmilk. However if i consume the gluten protien and then nurse her she has a reaction. The same type of thing is happening with eggs. We have eliminated to our hearts content and the ONLY common denominator is gluten. Our milk comes from pastured cows that never eat things like rye, wheat, or barely. she does fine with those things. I thought it may be possible to eliminate gluten from our chicken feed so she could also consume eggs

I react to eggs from hens fed gluten grains, I confirmed it when I was able to source some local free range eggs where the owner only supplemented corn feed and didn't react to them. There's also an online community for "super sensitive celiacs" where a bunch of the members actually test foods for gluten using test strips and there have been a bunch of store bought eggs that tested positive for gluten. So you are most definitely not alone! There have actually been some studies showing that soy protein can end up in an egg so it shouldn't be so far fetched to think that gluten could as well.

 

[SillyChicky]

My boss mills wheat and barley for his pig farm (sow mix)... Which is what the staple for our birds will be and has been years ago (and oyster shells). Just an idea, would any of you have any larger farms nearby you could cold call? Some might not mind making a few bucks to help a neighbor

 

[sodamancer]

I have switched to a fodder system. ITS AWESOME and so much cheaper. Yes i am using a gluten grain but once its been grassed it no longer has the gluten protien. check out this link for excellent info on fodder systems. Frühlingskabine Micro-Farm | Our adventure in gardening, angora rabbits, beekeeping, chickens, and quail on less than a quarter-acre

 

[myfivehens]

I have switched to a fodder system. ITS AWESOME and so much cheaper. Yes i am using a gluten grain but once its been grassed it no longer has the gluten protien. check out this link for excellent info on fodder systems. Frühlingskabine Micro-Farm | Our adventure in gardening, angora rabbits, beekeeping, chickens, and quail on less than a quarter-acre

Cool, I'll check it out!

 

[myfivehens]

So no reactions to your eggs since using the fodder system? Are you using wheat or barley? Thanks so much for all your help!