green tea?

[bluefeather2697]

is it alright to give my hen green tea? i'm afraid that there are some things there that are not good for chickens?
anyone? had an experience with this?

 

[Nambroth]

As in brewed tea? Is it straight up green tea, or a mix (with sugar added, etc)? If using a powdered mix, or any blended tea mixes where you don't know the ingredients, I'd probably refrain from doing so.
Or... do you mean the tea leaves? Or powdered Japanese green tea (matcha)?

The biggest worry is caffiene in the green tea. Not a terribly large amount, but every veterinary paper I've ever read cites that caffiene is toxic to avians and so I don't see that I'd mess with it unless I had a really good reason. For green tea, a study showed Green Tea had 10-20mg per 1 gram dried matter (dried leaves).

Here is some reading published by a veterinarian: http://www.multiscope.com/hotspot/caffeine.htm


Disclaimer: I believe that even some toxic things can be imbibed by our chickens in small amounts (e.g. apple seeds which contain a cyanide compound but a chicken would have to eat a lot to become ill) , but, unless there is a good reason for giving it (such as consumption being an accident), why tempt fate? Then again my chickens are pets, and I probably look at them more personally than some do.

 

[bluefeather2697]

As in brewed tea? Is it straight up green tea, or a mix (with sugar added, etc)? If using a powdered mix, or any blended tea mixes where you don't know the ingredients, I'd probably refrain from doing so.
Or... do you mean the tea leaves? Or powdered Japanese green tea (matcha)?

The biggest worry is caffiene in the green tea. Not a terribly large amount, but every veterinary paper I've ever read cites that caffiene is toxic to avians and so I don't see that I'd mess with it unless I had a really good reason. For green tea, a study showed Green Tea had 10-20mg per 1 gram dried matter (dried leaves).

Here is some reading published by a veterinarian: http://www.multiscope.com/hotspot/caffeine.htm


Disclaimer: I believe that even some toxic things can be imbibed by our chickens in small amounts (e.g. apple seeds which contain a cyanide compound but a chicken would have to eat a lot to become ill) , but, unless there is a good reason for giving it (such as consumption being an accident), why tempt fate? Then again my chickens are pets, and I probably look at them more personally than some do.

um. i forgot to tell. that the tea i have are leaves. i have lotsa green tea plant here in my backyard and i don't use them all.
so if i can feed them to my hen, in what way? can i just feed them straight leaves? or brew them first? thanks 4 ur response

 

[Oregon Blues]

You have tea growing in your back yard? Where do you live?

 

[bluefeather2697]

You have tea growing in your back yard? Where do you live?

yes, that's right. i live here in the PH, south east asia.

 

[galanie]

Most that feed green tea feed them powdered leaves. I've no idea if they'd eat fresh leaves or not. Personally I'm jealous that you have a tea plant in your yard lol. I thought of trying it but the cost of the plants and the difficulty of finding some put me off it for now.

 

[junglebird]

The tea plant: Camellia sinensis. Dried tea contains around 2-5% caffeine (even white and green tea). I don't know how much caffeine the fresh leaves contain but would think of it like this: when cooking, dried herbs are substantially more potent than fresh. For example, in a recipe, we would use much less dried basil than fresh. I imagine it'd be the same with tea leaves because they have so much water in them, and haven't oxidized yet - dried leaves are the concentrate form.

Here's a link to some tea info, which also has a lot of links: http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=1053

I've got a few spindley little tea plants growing in my greenhouse, started them a couple of years ago ... hoping to coax them along! They made seed buds this year, so i think we're doing ok.

As far as what's good for chickens, I generally let my them tell me what is ok for them and what's not .... they've been good at it so far!