is dog food OK to give to chickens?

[Jost]

I am switching around dog foods as my dalmation seems to have developed allergies (at 11 years old!) I have IAMS left over & was wondering if that could be used up as a treat for the girls. I am enjoying reading the treats they can have from the kitchen....we had hot wings today, would the leftover bones with some meat on them be OK too?

 

[Dodgegal79]

Mine always eat my dogs food. I would give it as a treat, not as feed. There is usually a lot of sugar and salt in dog food, so a little would be better.

 

[RoostersCrow]

Dog food as a treat would be fine.

 

[Jost]

I raise mealworms and have compost worms (red worms) and they eat a lot of leftovers or kitchen scraps. But as I wait for my chickens, I keep asking myself, could the chickens eat this? or that? For example, we finished our salads and there was some leftover in the bowl. It had salad dressing on it so my first instinct was no.....ranch or vinager and oil.....love the peanut info as the local peanut factory had told my husband we could have all the seconds we wanted at harvest, shell and all.... is there any use for that stuff?

 

[rooster-red]

Put the peanut shells in your compost pile.

 

[ginasmarans]

Mine eat anything I trow out there. They are little garbage disposals.

 

[Davaroo]

Cool thing about chickens?

They dont care what you feed them. Dog food as a treat is fine. Some few people will fuss that there are chemicals, or too much salt or whatever in dog food. Ditto catfood. But as a treat for them, it would do admirably... probably better than some of the stuff people give them.

Meat scraps and bones are fine, too.

For the record, chickens are omnivorous and their natural diet consists of :

grains/seeds/nuts
"green" feeds
meat, usually as insects, grubs and carrion.

Take a look at the "treat list" stickied to this forum. It pretty well sums it up...

 

[ChuckenGirl]

Mine eat anything
whole watermelons
fruit
feathers
each other
me...
yea they like it all.

or maybe mine are just stupid and not healthy.
well on is kinda fat..hmm

 

[Jost]

I found the treat list- I thought I had been all over this site- which I read constantly......today my son, 17 & I go to the tourdcoop in Raleigh for ideas on our own coop. We hope to start building in June, while the other son is home from college..... thanks for the input, this site is very very helpful. I will be buying regular feed & grit & oyster shell from the feed store when I pick up the girls, they are older as I was afraid to start with babies....I hope I can train them with my loads & loads of mealworms. The mealworms are in wheat bran, they can eat that too right? If anyone wants to try raising mealworms, I am happy to let you in on what has worked for me. I have raised them a over a year now successfully in my garage. jane

 

[Davaroo]

Im a little puzzled by why you have been rasing mealworms, but I probably shouldn't ask...

But, yes, they can eat wheat bran. Nearly anything you can eat, they can, too.