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

[trapperwv1]

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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The only problem I see as long as you don't give them too much is your wife is only mad because you took it from her.. My chickens are cannibals, they eat mice, garter snakes , other small snakes, even a possum that thought he could get a meal.. The feral cats in the area don't bother them, but I did lose a rooster to my german shepherd, rooster shouldn't have teased her.

 

[Beccackle]

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.

So true.

 

[Jenwysocki]

I give my chickens everything

 

[Dharmachick]

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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My chickens get leftovers. What they don't eat gets composted. They are vibrantly healthy and lay prolifically. It's not that great for humans to eat pizza either, but we do.

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

Did they, also ask for gold chains to wear around their neck,

Yes, yes they did.

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

So on the onions...

We have a Buff Orp pullet that used to stink so bad. She is super sweet and runs to us to be held. She kept stinking so bad like onions that we started avoiding picking her up. A short time later we found her in the compost pile just destroying a big raw onion. She had been eating onions out there for a couple weeks. Any time an onion is thrown in there she finds them again and eats all she wants. She’s cool. I am glad it didnt kill her. What is supposed to be poisonous about onions to chickens? How much would they have to eat to hurt them. She’s about half grown now. Started her onion addiction when she was still very small.

 

[Hayden Goseek]

So on the onions...

We have a Buff Orp pullet that used to stink so bad. She is super sweet and runs to us to be held. She kept stinking so bad like onions that we started avoiding picking her up. A short time later we found her in the compost pile just destroying a big raw onion. She had been eating onions out there for a couple weeks. Any time an onion is thrown in there she finds them again and eats all she wants. She’s cool. I am glad it didnt kill her. What is supposed to be poisonous about onions to chickens? How much would they have to eat to hurt them. She’s about half grown now. Started her onion addiction when she was still very small.

If you get better information follow that. I don't feed them onions and citrus because I assumed it would flavor the eggs.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

So on the onions...

We have a Buff Orp pullet that used to stink so bad. She is super sweet and runs to us to be held. She kept stinking so bad like onions that we started avoiding picking her up. A short time later we found her in the compost pile just destroying a big raw onion. She had been eating onions out there for a couple weeks. Any time an onion is thrown in there she finds them again and eats all she wants. She’s cool. I am glad it didnt kill her. What is supposed to be poisonous about onions to chickens? How much would they have to eat to hurt them. She’s about half grown now. Started her onion addiction when she was still very small.

Is there other stuff in the compost to eat beyond onions? Usually they’ll eat other stuff before onions if they’re available.

At least that’s true of my flock, who never touch onions in the compost. Or maybe she just likes onions and/or smelling bad!

Not sure what amount of onion starts to be unhealthy...if you’re concerned, maybe bury any onion scraps more than a tiny bit deeper in the pile so she can’t get to it?

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

Is there other stuff in the compost to eat beyond onions? Usually they’ll eat other stuff before onions if they’re available.

At least that’s true of my flock, who never touch onions in the compost. Or maybe she just likes onions and/or smelling bad!

Not sure what amount of onion starts to be unhealthy...if you’re concerned, maybe bury any onion scraps more than a tiny bit deeper in the pile so she can’t get to it?

Oh yeah there’s plenty of other stuff. Like you say the other chickens don’t touch the onions. She will eat a probably a quarter of a white onion in a sitting. I’ve even buried them a little so she wouldnt stink herself up. She still finds them. She may be after the sugar.

 

[Hayden Goseek]

Is there other stuff in the compost to eat beyond onions? Usually they’ll eat other stuff before onions if they’re available.

At least that’s true of my flock, who never touch onions in the compost. Or maybe she just likes onions and/or smelling bad!

Not sure what amount of onion starts to be unhealthy...if you’re concerned, maybe bury any onion scraps more than a tiny bit deeper in the pile so she can’t get to it?

When we had a "worm bed" in an old cast iron bathtub behind the fishing camp, the grown-ups told us not to add onions because it would kill the worms. They Loved coffee grounds though. Again go by newer info since this is from @60 years ago.