Sugary foods??

[rainbowgardens]

Don't worry, I wasn't suggesting that you can't feed your birds what you want, I was just trying to answer the question asked by the beginning post.

 

[elmo]

You know how they say sugar is "empty calories?" To the extent chickens fill up on sugary foods, they're not eating more nutritious ones that contain the nutrients their bodies need to produce eggs and keep healthy.

An occasional cupcake isn't going to hurt a flock, but a steady diet of foods like this probably would.

 

[Wifezilla]

If information is wanted about the damage done by sugar, I recommend two books I have studied...Sugar Shock and Sugar Blues

And Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

One of the causes diabetes is high sugar and high fat diets that cause obesity and therefore ill health.

Close, but not quite. The sugar combined with the fat causes problems. Leave out the sugar and the fat is no problem at all (see study link at end of post).

As far as I'm concerned people can feed themselves & their chickens whatever they want but IMO there are people who are much too concerned about both.

I wish I didn't have to worry about it, but since many in my family keel over in their 40's and I am 46, plus I had high blood pressure and weighed almost 300 pounds...YEAH, I had to worry. Learning the real deal about sugar has now got my blood pressure down to normal, my weight down 80 lbs or so, and I feel better now than I did in my 20's. Good for you if you are genetically blessed, but not all of us can be so flippant about it.

As for my animals, I don't vaccinate and I don't get all obsessive about bio-security. When wildlife stops by and flies overhead on a regular basis, I think it is a big myth anyhow. Remember NYREDS, YOU asked about the sugar. And since you work in the mental health program, you may find this study very interesting...
http://www.physorg.com/news175187601.html​