Hi Protein Treats During Molt?

[micstrachan]

Greetings,
I am very confused on the whole treats thing. I do understand we don’t want to disrupt their nutritional balance, so only give treats in moderation. I only give my girls little amounts of treats, and they are high nutrition treats. Two are molting, so I am not giving any treats that aren’t high in protein (no kale for them right now, for example).
However, I thought high protein treats are not harmful and maybe even beneficial for molting members if the flock. By high protein treats, I mean live meal worms, greek yogurt, and hulled (raw) sunflower seeds. Not true? Maybe they’re not as high in protein as I think? The last few days I’ve thrown a couple handfuls of the sunflower seeds to be shared by nine chickens, two of which are molting, at the end of the day, after they’ve had free choice layer crumble all day. Is there a problem with this? Thank you!

 

[TattooedChicks]

I think moderation is key and what you are doing is on the right track to support them through their molt. I’ve got a dozen bantams in various states of feather loss, so they’ve been getting small servings of dried black soldier larvae which packs a whooping 35 percent protein in a tiny package, that way they get the boost without getting too full.

 

[rjohns39]

You're doing fine. It's good to limit treats to no more than 10% of their total diet. Other high protein treats include Alfalfa meal, canned pink salmon, canned tuna in oil and raw beef liver. There are many more out there, but I use them and what you've suggested. Also hard boiled or scrambled eggs are in that list.

 

[JedJackson]

The argument against giving a lot of treats is that it will upset the balance of nutrients present in layer feed, and this is probably true. Those feeds are formulated to give precisely the amount of each nutrient a bird will need. However, I see no problem giving a small amount of treats so long as they are nutritious. Scratch grains, which are often used as treats, are one of the worst since their protein and vitamin content is so low yet they are so high in calories. But giving high protein meal worms in moderation to molting birds is a great idea, and sunflower seeds have high vitmin E content, which is also good. I wouldn't give birds dairy products, though. Chickens are lactose intolerant.

 

[LittleWillowFarm]

I feed my hens alfalfa while molting.
here is a good recipe for a flock block type molting treat, that I made, they loved it!
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/alfalfa-cake-protein-treat-for-molting.html

 

[Fairview01]

Commercial feed companies put a lot of research to determine the nutritional requirements of poultry at every stage of life meaning the feed they sell contains the minimum but adequate for acceptable performance in the commercial production environment. If they added more than minimum but adequate they would price themselves out of the market. Adding 1% more of protein may have negligible costs for one sack of feed but over thousands of tons of feed it becomes not so insignificant. Thats why the everyone quotes the 10% golden rule about treats. Higher percentage of low protein treats dilutes the protein content to a point of interfering with the desired production.

One of the things I despise is all these rules. This should be a simple, uncomplicated backyard experience.

About once a week or when I don't see any on the ground I throw probably 2-3lbs of whole roasted soybeans in the run for about 3 dozen chickens. They don't like them much but they do eat them eventually. If you're already feeding commercial rations unless the bag states animal or fish protein, at 40%+/- protein soy is pretty the universal cheap source of protein for commercial rations. Feathers are nearly 100% protein so it just makes sense to bolster the protein content during a molt. Since they don't have an appetite for soy like they do for scratch grains, they eat a little bit each day.

The caveats of feeding soy beans or any whole grains to chickens that have been on a mash or pellet diet only is the gizzard must first be conditioned by having grit always available and starting off slowly with small quantities of scratch to strengthen this organ to do what it's intended to do.

The soybeans must be roasted. Only multiple stomach animals like cows can process raw soybeans.

 

[micstrachan]

Thanks for all the great comments! I won’t stress about it too much. Dud not know that about dairy. What’s a better way to add occasional probiotic?

 

[Titan Farm]

Only multiple stomach animals like cows can process raw soybeans.

Cattle (Bovine) only have ONE stomach, they multiple chambers with in that one stomach.

 

[Titan Farm]

Chickens are lactose intolerant.

Poultry (chickens) are not totally lactose intolerant and can handle small amounts of lactose in the diet.