is fluoride good for my chickens?

[SeattleChickenHead]

I live in the city and our water is chlorinated and flouridated, I was wondering if there are any benefits from this? From what Ive read about ingesting fluoride it dosent sound like it, I also just searched "Brita"s website and it says carbon filters dont remove fluoride, the only way is distilling or RO....

Do any other city dwellers give special water to thier chickens? Apparently harvesting your roof water is illegal here, YES!

Would drinking fluoride have some benefit I dont know about? like a nice shiny beak?

 

[kla37]

I have no idea but I'm interested now too! Good question.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Fluoride is a poision, and is not fit for human or animal consumption.
Many will not agree, but if you do rational research, and look at both sides, the evidence is overwhelmingly
negative.
The only thing that will prevent cavities fully, is proper preperation of grains, ie., sprouted, fermented, soaked.
And for those curious, sugar affects the endocrine system, not the teeth.

 

[SeattleChickenHead]

Ya apparently theres a law saying rainwater harvest is ILLEGAL even though alot of Seattleites do it, How long till they crack down with "OPERATION RAINBARREL" or something? I cant find the laws on distilling anything other than alcohol...and reverse osmosis (RO) machines are kinda pricey and rely on replacement filters, I could BUY distilled water in a plastic jug for a dollar? But really distilled water isnt great because its PH unstable and leaches things like plastic...Any suggestions on how to give pure WATER to chickens in a cheap legal way??
Or is fluoride and chlorine and heavy metals good for living things?

 

[Illia]

. . . Rainwater collecting in WA is illegal. . . Since when?

I would NEVER recommend Flouride to chickens or humans alike. It is a poison indeed, and does NOT help fight any problems people tell you it will. . . Unless health and life is considered a problem.

Golly I'm glad I don't live in a city. . We've got well water, so we're not forced into spending money on filtering out city water.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Quote:
Hmmm, as to laws against rainwater not being a public resource

I get the problem you face. Distilled is not a good idea for sure, Buying bottled may not work either, because it often is fluoridated as well.
Never mind that it is spendy.
Personally, I would find a way to set up a hidden raincatch system, even though I am a law abiding system.
Maybe others have a better idea on systems that work and do not cost a ton.

A motto of mine is, if I would not feed my animals it, then no way am I going to eat/drink it, and vice versa!

 

[popcornpuppy]

Quote:
Yup, I agree 100%. Fluoride is considered toxic/hazzardous waste and I think it was used in the atomic bomb. It is also more toxic than lead poisoning. Why they think we need it for healthy teeth is a mystery. We are fortunate enough to have well water and I have heard or read that certain places are banning the collection of rain water. So what is one to do? I would guess that the best option is get some kind of filtration systen for the tap and do research to see if it will filter out fluoride. It's a tough spot to be in, and I wish you the best of luck with it. Hopefully someone will come up with a reasonable answer to your problem that may benefit others as well.

 

[Cavendish Chickens]

We have well water too, but we don't find it drinking safe. So in turn, we buy natural spring water from the store, add the vitamins, and there it is. Also, we have machines where we can fill up water jugs (by the gallon) that offers RO water. I'm not really sure what RO water is, or how it reverses osmosis. But.... whatever. lol I just really prefer the spring water.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Roof catch rain water systems are illegal for human consumption in lots of places because of contamination that builds up on the roof an contamination from the materials that it is made out of. Nothing wrong with rain water as long as you catch it safely.

 

[Eglyntine]

Fluoride is just as bad for your chickens as it is for you. It is an aluminum processing byproduct that when ingested never full passes through your system. The same thing happens to your animals when they ingest it.

And contrary to a lot of myths out there about distilled water, it is the best water you can drink for yourself and give your animals. Distilled water is a process built off of the way nature purifies water and the results is just plain, clean, pure water. It is 99.999% pure water. A lot of the misinformation out there about distilled water is written by RO manufacturers, the bottled water industry and the lovely Water Authorities that find it acceptable to allow unsafe amounts of poisons into our drinking water because they do not want to waste the manpower on figuring out a cost effective way to make it cleaner.

Most of the minerals in tap/ro/bottled water do not absorb into your system because they are inorganic minerals. The same goes for these waters with vitamins put in them. As for distilled water that you buy in the store in those wonderful plastic jug bottles, you are right that it does take on the taste of that funky plastic and it is not good for you but then again any type of water will do the same thing.

I have two home water distillation systems in my house to keep up with our personal consumption of drinking and cooking and then the other is for our hydroponics gardening and giving to our animals. My first batch of chickens were adopted and they were some of the most poorly looking chickens and part of the problem was the water they were being given. I have had them for about 4 months now and they absolutely refuse to drink any other kind of water than the distilled water. Mostly because it is just plain clean pure water and trust me they CAN tell the difference.

About once a month we are low on drinking water just because of the water changes we have to do in our three huge fish tanks and on those rare occasions I have given them regular bottle water and even that they will not drink.

A home distiller that provides around 7 to 10 gallons of water a day will run you anywhere from $1300 to $2300, which seems like a lot but when you consider how much you spend a year on bottled water (that is most likely just tap water in a fancy bottle) or with the RO systems the replacement filters that cost you an arm and a leg, the cost pretty much evens out with having the distiller. After that first year you are not paying anything else except the electricity to run the distiller and the twice a year maintenance/cleaning (usually only $20/yr) even that is not that expensive. I never saw my electric bill go up from installation of my system.

I was very skeptical about the whole distilled water issue, I always figured putting a Brita filter on the faucet was enough. As long as the water tasted fine what could really be wrong with it right? After running our first distiller for a month at my home and seeing all of the disgusting garbage that is in our water that was enough to cure me from ever drinking or using anything else. And giving my animals anything else just seems cruel to me. If I will not drink it then how could I give it to them?