How often to feed "Treats"???

[StaatsFarms]

I have 13 9 week old chickens.... we have been chopping up a cucumber or apple (or whatever else we feel like giving them) every evening for treats... is this ok to do??? they are still eating through their feed like "it's going out of style" but I wanted to make sure I am not giving them too many treats

FYI: my wife has this Pampered Chef food chopper thingy that works great for this...

 

[Indiana hens]

They will eat until they get tired of it. As long as they don't get the poops feed em treats. If they do get the poops feed em yogurt., or add that to their treat list now!

 

[StaatsFarms]

Yeah we were gonna give them some yogurt as well... but right now we have cucumbers coming out of the you know what... and apparently everyone else does too as we can't even give them away!!! So off to the chickens they go!!!

has anyone given Celery to their chickens??? I can't find celery on any of the "chicken treat" lists...

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I give mine everything except meat (don't want to attract other critters) As I pick the garden, I toss whatever is insect damaged over the fence into their run. What they don't eat, rots and becomes organic matter for next years garden

 

[StaatsFarms]

Quote:
Holy Chicken Poop!!! I didn't think of that... we have been throwing the bad veggies out... I will now stop disposing of the bug infested veggies...

FYI: I just smacked myself in the back of the head for this!!!

 

[Imp]

I give mine celery occasionally. I pretty much give anything except avocado. And only avocado because I remember reading it was toxic when I had parrots. I don't worry much about the "toxic" lists cause I never give too much at any time.
I usually toss out about 1/4 cup scratch in the yard everyday after work. They get the leftover catfood, about 1/2 cup, every morning. I make a salad for them everynight, mostly veggies with a little starch and fruit. and they free range all day long. They have access to layena 24/7, but really don't go through it that fast, maybe a 1/2 cup per day. I have 4 hens.

Imp

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Really? Utoh!! Mine finished up a couple of old ones yesterday. So far no problems.

 

[Judy]

I don't count yogurt as a treat because they don't digest milk well so a tsp a day per bird is plenty; they do still get the benefit of the bacteria in it.

Treats should be limited to 5% of their total daily intake. They need the nutrition of the feed. I've seen several threads on here about chickens who got into nutritional trouble because they were fed too many treats.

 

[Imp]

Quote:
Really? Utoh!! Mine finished up a couple of old ones yesterday. So far no problems.

Somebody else posted the same thing a few months ago. Guess I should add it to the OK list.
Oh wait! No such thing as leftover avocado here. The hens would have to wrestle me for it.

Imp- Likes to eat green slimy things

 

[cmom]

I give mine almost everything. I usually give my birds some treats in the late afternoon/early evening.

Here is the link to BYC Chicken Treat Chart.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart