List of food NOT to feed chickens

[MeepBeep]

I was told to not allow them to eat meal worms because they give chickens tapeworm.

Is that accurate?

No

 

[MeepBeep]

Urbanchick1950 keep a close eye on the bare bottomed chicken. It sounds to me like the other chickens are pulling feathers. If this is the case they sell anti-picking remedies. Some bluecoat may be advisable too. It is also the time of year chickens tend to moult. Kind of like a dog shedding it's winter coat.

Feather plucking is almost always connected to overcrowding, environmental stress or a protein deficiency in their feed...

 

[balloonflower]

Earthworms can be carriers of tape or roundworms. Mealworms are actually the larval form of the darkling beetle.

 

[mramericauna]

Meepbeeb that is true. I have seen it more commonly in over crowding than protein deficiency but it is something to consider

 

[ChickNanny13]

I was told to not allow them to eat meal worms because they give chickens tapeworm.

Is that accurate?

I've always used the Freeze Dried as a training tool, they LOVE them. I've also raised mealworms, they all go NUTS over them. Mealworms are a good treat

 

[Leigti]

I have a compost pile that my chickens have access to. So except for avocados and raw potatoes I pretty much throw everything in there. So I hope I'm not endangering them in someway. And if I did not give the meal worms once in a while I'm pretty sure they would run away from home.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Danah91... I have to offer you a wee correction for my own sanity. You said;

"I read that potatoes were in the cyanide family and shouldn't be given to chickens."

Cyanide is a chemical compound. So that would be a little like saying melons are in the water family of plants, or wheat is in the carbohydrate family of plants. Potatoes are a nightshade, a family of plants that DOES contain cyanide (mostly in the leaves), which many plants contain. Some other examples of cyanide bearing plant parts are cherry bark, apple seeds, peach wood, bamboo shoots, barley, etc. But cyanide is not a family of plants. I got a good laugh out of that, though! I hope that helps your understanding a little. Can't have people looking silly on the internet. Only factual knowledge allowed here.

 

[MeepBeep]

A useless addition from me...

This time of the year, every year I start an indoor flower garden from my daughters so they can enjoy watching flowers bloom in the winter, then come spring they have their own flower garden outside as well...

Anyway a few years back I got some rare flower seeds from an individual that sells nothing but legal 'taboo' (not to be confused with 'illegal') plants and flowers...

I planted some of the seeds I got and to my surprise, one plant didn't look like the others, low and behold it grew up to be deadly nightshade... A pretty plant/flower even if it's highly toxic...

 

[chicknmania]

I actually use buttermilk to moisten crumbles if I have a sick or injured bird I am treating. Likewise yogurt is good too, but I think buttermillk is better. Cottage cheese is another one I sometimes use for sick or injured birds. It is OK to give garlic once in a great while to healthy ones. White potatoes definitely not. Before I knew this, years ago I threw some white potatoes & peels in our
compost pile, which the chickens sometimes scratch around in. Shortly thereafter I had two hens sicken and die very quickly. I know they had both recently been in the compost pile
and I am sure they got hold of the white potatoes. .

Ours love watermelon...raw pumpkin and seeds...apples. Pretty much anything, lol.

 

[MeepBeep]

In regards to potatoes, I'm not saying feed them to your chickens, they should certainly be avoided as a rule of thumb... But I do believe that as far as the flesh goes (no the skin and buds) the toxicity is exaggerated quite a bit by many... If one was to believe they were as toxic as proclaimed there would almost certainly be piles of parking lot gulls and other birds all over the place from eating the copious amounts of french fries and potato chips that are tossed to them every day in some places...