Is caffeine bad for chickens?

[Alexandra33]

Since we have some untouched chocolate cake from my brother's plate, we were thinking about feeding the leftovers to our girls. However, this is not your ordinary chocolate cake; there are over 4 bars of 85% dark chocolate in the cake and 4 cups of cocoa in the frosting. Talk about caffeine overload! Even though I looked over the treat chart, there was nothing regarding this, and I want to make absolutely sure that it isn't unsafe before the chickens get any. Thanks so much!

-Alexandra33

 

[MySweetChickens]

Short answer No

long answer the "caffeine" or basically chocolate will affect them the same it would affect a dog it would likely poison them and if it doesn't do that the caffeine will then kick in most likely resulting in heart failure (though i don't know the last part for sure)

here is a paragraph from here
Chickens do not have much of sweet tooth. In fact, they only have around 25-30 taste buds, so more than likely, they wouldn’t realize they are eating anything sweet. Further, it’s bad on their digestive tract and chocolate especially contains a toxin called methylxanthines theobromine and is poisonous to chickens. Therefore, adding sugar to their diet wouldn’t be advisable.

 

[Alexandra33]

Short answer No

long answer the "caffeine" or basically chocolate will affect them the same it would affect a dog it would likely poison them and if it doesn't do that the caffeine will then kick in most likely resulting in heart failure (though i don't know the last part for sure)

here is a paragraph from here
Chickens do not have much of sweet tooth. In fact, they only have around 25-30 taste buds, so more than likely, they wouldn’t realize they are eating anything sweet. Further, it’s bad on their digestive tract and chocolate especially contains a toxin called methylxanthines theobromine and is poisonous to chickens. Therefore, adding sugar to their diet wouldn’t be advisable.

Thank you for the warning! The cake will be disposed of.

-Alexandra33