is dog food OK to give to chickens?

[dacjohns]

The general consensus, which I agree with, seems to be is that it is OK to give them some as a treat. I would not give them dog or cat food as the main source of food. My chickens which mostly free range eat the cat's food if the cat doesn't eat it all first. They seem to relish it.

 

[Davaroo]

Now that you've said that, someone will come out and tell us all dangers of cat food for chickens!

But you're right. Using up the remaining dog food as treats for chickens will put it to good use.

 

[dacjohns]

Yeah. I've been thinking about animal food lately. A beagle adopted us and we don't have any other dogs so the dog gets cat food. When I look at all the animal food formulations available I get to wondering. Cats are carnivores, dogs are carnivores. Are their nutrional needs that different? Then there are all the poultry formulations. The feed sack says I can feed ducks, game birds, turkeys, and chickens the same bag of feed. All these except the ducks are primarily ground birds that forage and eat whatever they find, omnivores. Wild ducks are two basic types, dabblers and divers. Their food is different but still a lot aquatic with some land based foods available, especially wood ducks. My pekins are a mallard but they can eat chicken food. OK, I'm not an animal nutritionist but I still wonder. Where the heck is this going. I lost track. Chickens are omnivores, my chicken food is plant based, my cat food is plant based (for a carnivore). The cat food (insert dog food also) shouldn't hurt if it isn't the main source of food. I think we've already established that. I think the horse is almost dead but that is another type of animal food. So cat food should be OK as long the cat and chickens don't fight over and the cat scratches the chickens and the chickens get cat scratch fever.

 

[Jost]

I raise mealworms for my bluebirds, but since moving I only have one pair at the new place so I have lots of extra mealworms. I had about 15-17 blues at my last home. Maybe they will come but in the meantime, I can train my chickens to come to me, and it should be really nutritious. j

 

[Davaroo]

Paragraphs, my friend. Learn to love them!

It seems there is a lot of confusing information on feed. I, too, have looked over the feed analysis labels and there is little difference in the main. For chickens its like this:

If it wont hurt you, it wont hurt your chickens

I suspect the concern is in the details. Cat food supposedly has too much salt in it, which gives some people fits to know. There's probably sugar, preservatives and other horrors we cant imagine, which no doubt bothers those interested in such minutae.

But the chickens I've known dont seem to be affected by all that, nor do they care. I have yet to see them keel over from snagging a bit of cat food when no one was looking.
Would I feed it to them as their sole feed? No. Would I worry about it too much? No.

 

[dacjohns]

Elderoo,

I love paragraphs but I was typing with my train of thought. Therefore the paragraphs got lost.
The cat food topic and your reference to Ted Nugent in your signature got me going. Sorry if I overwhelmed you with my nutrional musing and my lack of proper formatting. I just wanted an excuse to make a reference to the Nuge.

Sincerely,

Dave

 

[Davaroo]

Coo, cool. Im with you...

 

[Buster]

My rooster sneaks into my sunroom and steals the dog's food out of her bowl. The hens that he usually leads everywhere don't go in and eat it with him- just him. I am always shooing him out.

 

[Eggseronious]

Dog food is alright for chickens.

As long as they dont wake you up during the night barking.

 

[barred rock'er]

lol My chickens are always trying to find the dog food.
It's become a nice little "battle of the brains",I'll hide it here one day and there the next,problem is the chickens always seem to find it,and my dog can never find it.lol

My rooster also leads the attacks.lol