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

[CharlyZ]

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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We feed our chickens whatever comes off of our table, they only eat what they want the rest I scoop out of there, not a big deal

 

[pelicanchook]

My goodness, what a fuss! Australian chickens must be much tougher. My girls get whatever scraps might be available, ranging from pizza (rarely any of that left over), sausages and any other meat including salami, mice caught in traps, fruit of every kind, especially water melon, but not citrus because they just don't like it, veggies except onion because they don't like it, and avocados (not good for them). Of course they have their layer pellets on free feeding, and I have never had any digestive problems with any of this food. In rural areas in Australia, there is a native plant called a bush tomato, and when my girls are allowed out for a free range roam, they make a beeline for the little red and yellow fruits on the bush tomatoes, with no ill effects.

 

[Ellegibs]

I feed my chickens kitchen scraps all the time! Mainly fruits and veggies but they also get tuna, sardines a can of cat food once in a while. Scrambled eggs are one of their favorites! Tomorrow they are getting chopped up bits of my leftover steak from dinner. I just stay away from the no-nos like onions, citrus, potatoes. Once in a while I will give them yogurt as a treat. Chickens are like people. They know what they like and what they don't. I'm sure the pizza won't harm them but its not anything I feed them often.

 

[sarahconnor]

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

View attachment 2498991

We feed our flock including our goose a lot of table scraps maybe a platter a day for thirty girls. Lotsa stuff, they are all healthy and lay a lot of eggs. They really enjoy it. I just made them a big pot of grits since it is quite cold and they loved it. Leftover pizza, burgers fries all kinds of stuff. Not tons but moderately.
there was just a big article in this topic. It was very good.

 

[sarahconnor]

My goodness, what a fuss! Australian chickens must be much tougher. My girls get whatever scraps might be available, ranging from pizza (rarely any of that left over), sausages and any other meat including salami, mice caught in traps, fruit of every kind, especially water melon, but not citrus because they just don't like it, veggies except onion because they don't like it, and avocados (not good for them). Of course they have their layer pellets on free feeding, and I have never had any digestive problems with any of this food. In rural areas in Australia, there is a native plant called a bush tomato, and when my girls are allowed out for a free range roam, they make a beeline for the little red and yellow fruits on the bush tomatoes, with no ill effects.

Sounds good and the same with mine! Have a good season

 

[woodlandcello]

My dad grew up on a Montana ranch with chickens on the premises. My grandmother threw any and all table scraps into a bucket which were fed to the chickens who ate with gusto. As I understand it, there are few foods (easily looked up) which chickens really should not eat. Amount-wise, they are not gluttons and will generally stop when full. I think as long as the main diet is a good quality feed, why not add interest with a variety of table scrap treats!

 

[Hayden Goseek]

When my husband slaughters rabbits (yes, we raise & eat our rabbits), he tosses them errant pieces of fat, & holy moly do they go crazy for it...also go nutty for dry cat food, baby rats from nests we have dug up, & of course any leftover fruits &/or veggies. But
processed human food? Nope. Not good for humans not good for them. Whats next? A bucket of Popeye’s?

Only if they gave me mild Popeyes by mistake.

 

[Ebarnes-21]

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

Of course it's OK for the girls to have food scraps. Pizza they love particularly.

We used to feed our chickens and ducks almost exclusively from Pizza restaurant scraps we picked up weekly.
I've never SEEN them lay so well before or since!

Pizza is bread you know, add in a bit of bacon cheese and other proteins and it's perfect for chickens.

Theoretically I guess layer pellets or other premade chicken feed 'should' contain far more certain balance of vitamins etc. Most of the time we offered them a small daily handful of pellets too ... but they often refused them in preference to the pizza.

But, I would swap back to pizza scraps in an instant. Layer pellets alone are simply not keeping the girls as glossy, plump nor laying so well as when we were on at least 50% pizza scraps in their diet.

 

[TerrellE]

Ditto for our flock. We give them snacks such as pizza, cheese, and macaroni and have never seen any ill effects.

 

[heatherdevito1]

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.