Help! My wife is mad at me for feeding the chickens pizza!

[Rosebud25]

My chickens rarely get leftover pizza because there's rarely leftover pizza....
But they did Subway on Tuesday...

(My chickens eat and enjoy all leftovers all the time, I just have to remove the leftover from any styrofoam containers because they eat that, too. Every Sunday night the 2 refrigerators in the control room at work get emptied out and goes in a bucket for my chickens. The only things they don't eat are iceberg lettuce, raw onions, lemons & limes and some pickles.)(I am not saying it's healthy but I've never seen one with issues from it.)

I throw everything out in the barnyard for the chickens, ducks, guineas, turkeys and whoever else wants to indulge. Never lost one yet! No leftovers either. Mine have free range from dawn till dusk. They also have a self feeder filled every evening with scratch, layer pellets, corn, and if it's real cold I add a bit of sweet feed to the mix. Usually has a bit left in the morning.

 

[Beccackle]

Can someone please help me convince her that it's okay for the girls to have fun table scraps?

Everything in moderation right?!

EDIT: Our girls usually get much smaller quantities of veggie scraps, but this was a couple of weeks ago on New Years Day and all the girls were fine

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I'm not an expert, but I feel that everything in moderation is all right, except for the foods that are known to be poisonous to chickens, like rhubarb and avocados. My flock enjoys a little bread sometimes and pizza crust is no different. As far as being nutritious, cheese is high in protein and calcium. What's not to like, once in a while?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Neither is Whataburger but I find myself eating it often!

Lol! Agreed.

 

[micstrachan]

I used to give the in-town chickens an occasional pizza because my spare kid worked at Domino's on the closing shift and would bring home burnt or mis-made pizzas.

Too much fat and salt isn't good for them, but a little bit of pizza from time to time is unlikely to do them any harm -- especially if they are free-fed their regular, balanced feed and have access to plenty of other goodies such as forage, vegetables, weeds, etc.

It was never a lot and they never suffered any ill effects. It was always hilarious to see one of the hens snatch off a slice of pepperoni and take off for a game of chicken football with the rest of the flock chasing her instead of pulling off their own pepperoni.

Foraging in human garbage is, after all, probably how chickens ended up being domesticated to begin with.

Haha! What’s a spare kid?

 

[Tilhana]

Seems fine to me, as long as that's not their regular diet.

There's a lot of lists out there about all the terrible junk foods you're not supposed to feed chickens. Funny thing is, 90% of what's on those lists could also apply to people. Greasy salty pizza is not great for anyone, but as an occasional treat it's not likely to do anything worse than give them a bit of indigestion.

Most of the really bad foods - the ones that people online warn you will "poison" your birds - the birds are smart enough not to eat. Things like milkweed, avocado pits, onions, etc, they will instinctively avoid. The only human "food" - though I wouldn't call it that - that I really avoid giving them is the really high-sugar super processed stuff like cake and candy, which we don't really eat in my house anyway. That stuff is so far from anything in nature that their instincts won't recognize it as the poison it is (it really is for us, too).

But pizza is basically bread, cheese, and tomato sauce, and the only stuff that's really bad for them is the excessive salt and processed oils, which I think are a small enough percentage of the total weight of the food to be no more than an irritant, although I wouldn't give them lage amounts of it regularly.

Isn't it funny how people will feed their cats and dogs cheap brands of food that's basically the most low-grade meat that's considered unfit for human consumption, processed with tons of junk to make it taste better, just because it comes in a can that says "fancy feast"; and they'll feed themselves ding dongs and hot pockets and glucose syrup drinks as long as they come from a nice clean package; but when it comes to their chickens, they'll insist that anything less than organic formulated layer feed and fresh veggie scraps from a list of approved foods will poison them.

 

[Floof]

This seems like such a silly discussion to me. There have been so many posters protesting to the ingredients in the pizza and touting premixed layer feed as the only food in a chickens diet. Pizza is just flour, yeast, water, sauce (tomatoes and herbs), cheese, and possibly toppings. Ingredients are listed on the package by greatest quantity to the smallest and the first ingredient in organic layer pellets are wheat and barley. Flour is just wheat ground up so those who say "too many grains!" might want to take a closer look at the labels on the products they trust so much. Those who object to dairy seem to be just repeating what they have heard others say instead of understanding the reason why dairy is often objected to. Many animals (and humans) can't digest lactose but when you culture dairy, the culture digests most of the lactose, giving it that familiar sour taste. Likewise, much of the lactose is separated out from cheese when they separate the curds from the whey during the cheesemaking process.

Yes pellets are easier but by no means are they they ONLY food allowed in a healthy chickens diet. Chickens need protein, carbs, calcium and vitamins just like every other animal. A couple slices of pizza as part of a varied diet is not going to hurt them. Pizza even has 12g of protein per slice and 20% of a human's daily calcium requirements so I would count this as a decent snack.

 

[Tilhana]

We throw all of our table scraps (all foods not eaten) outside. My chickens do eat what ever they want from the scrap pile. I have never had an issue with them getting sick because of it. I also see them eat a few bites (no longer than 5ish minutes at the location the latest stuff was dumped out at) then they move on. Most of that stuff is eaten by the critters that come out at night.

(before anyone says anything about dumping table scraps outside. We have to store our garbage and take it to a dump ourselves. So we don't dump food in the trash. )

Why would anyone say anything about dumping table scraps outside? Are there people petitioning to put more food in landfills instead of letting it compost the way everything else in nature does? One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing trash cans with organic materials in them. I keep thinking I should bring a bucket to all family gatherings so I can collect the food scraps for either my chickens or my compost.

 

[Turner_Family_Flock]

Honestly, as much as I've been afraid to accidentally give my hens too much of any good things, they're little dinosaurs.
If you DARE walk out onto the patio to check on them while holding a piece of cheese- you better not be partial to your fingers. They can smell it a mile away and will fight to the death for cheese. Especially string cheese, if one of them catches sight of a white stick of string cheese in your hand? say goodbye to your precious fingers.
Other scraps they've loved as well.
Carrot peelings? Awesome
Garden tomatoes? Best day ever
The 1 or 2 peanut mnms my mom will toss them when she gets a new bag?
Once they figure out how to crack through the shells, they love em even more.
I think everyone occasionally treats their hens with something unhealthy, but as long as it's not toxic or in excessive quantities it's alright. My family tends to eat pizzas pretty quick, but that's not to say that I've never broken up a few pieces of crust and tossed them into their coop, maybe the crust of 2 or 3 slices. But then the hens also spend all day in the yard, grazing on grass and (at this wet time of year especially) digging up worms. Like 95 percent of my hen's diet is controlled and normal- a mix of grazing, bug catching, and their feed, and then 5 percent is treats.

I think an unhealthy treat would be like, a single slice of pizza- maybe chopped to small bits, definitely cooled to room temperature. Especially pizza with a lot of veg, like veggie lovers. Maybe not pure cheese or pure meat. And unlike humans, hens wont turn up their nose if you dare to serve a side salad with a little pizza- toss in some extra greens if they're gonna eat a little extra nonsense.

 

[Tilhana]

Ya know what? I'll help you convince her that it's fine because it's not something you do all the time. I feed my chickens fresh fruits and vegetables, plus all of our dinner leftovers as extra nutrition all the time. My vet says my chickens probably eat better than most humans. No, the salt isn't great, but they love bread which is the dough and a little cheese isn't going to hurt them. I'm glad they are enjoying it and having a great time! In the future, I would definitely recommend researching what they can and can't eat though, because there are a handful of food that are highly toxic, such as: avocado in ALL forms, green tomatoes (but they can eat red), potatoes must have any green cut off of them but there isn't too much else. At least once a week I make them belgian waffles with cinnamon and fresh fruit mixed in the batter, and every night before bed, I prep all the fruits and veggies in the food processor to mix with their grain and black sunflower seeds. The pizza won't hurt them, but I wouldn't make a habit it out of it for the grease alone. Have a good night.

I feed mine avocados all the time. They ignore the skins and pits, which are the toxic parts. They've never suffered any ill effects from the avocado "flesh".

 

[Tilhana]

Avocado & chocolate are deadly to all birds

Then mine must be the walking dead