Table scraps

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Just as dogs will enjoy the veggies (I’ve seen dogs who love baby carrots as treats), the chickens will love the occasional meat scrap...and in fact it’ll help off-set any imbalance of protein compared to layer feed.

 

[FortCluck]

My dogs will clean up whatever the chickens don't want, and for all these years, has never once taken anything from the chickens while they were still eating. My dogs know that I'm the pack leader, that every chicken on the property has higher status than they do, and obediently wait their TURN for the scraps.

My dogs don't usually go in the fenced in free range area we have for our chickens, we have a beagle that is a hunter... She did get loose the other day and the instant I said her name she froze. They know I'm the pack leader and flock leader.

My dogs sneak into the chicken feed bins that I have in the house, their food must taste good or something. Soon my dogs will be laying eggs

 

[FortCluck]

Just as dogs will enjoy the veggies (I’ve seen dogs who love baby carrots as treats), the chickens will love the occasional meat scrap...and in fact it’ll help off-set any imbalance of protein compared to layer feed.

Our chickens get meat as well when we have scraps of it, which is kind of rare in this household. Sometimes when we have a roasted chicken carcass we will put it out there and they will pick it clean. Some people say that you shouldn't do this because it will cause cannibalism, but last time I checked chickens don't know what cooked chicken looks like or tastes like.

 

[wyoDreamer]

My kittens were eating the chicken starter that I spilled on the floor the other day ... at least they cleaned it up so I don't get any more mice. They are 7 months old have been learning to be hunters, so far I have found 3 dead mice, 2 birds and an un-known number of butterflies...

 

[blackandtan]

My dogs don't usually go in the fenced in free range area we have for our chickens, we have a beagle that is a hunter... She did get loose the other day and the instant I said her name she froze. They know I'm the pack leader and flock leader.

My dogs sneak into the chicken feed bins that I have in the house, their food must taste good or something. Soon my dogs will be laying eggs

Yep mine sneak chicken chow too. It’s quite disgusting really cause they’ll poop a log of grain, which the chickens will then scratch through and eat.
I don’t tell my egg customers that though!

 

[FortCluck]

Yep mine sneak chicken chow too. It’s quite disgusting really cause they’ll poop a log of grain, which the chickens will then scratch through and eat.
I don’t tell my egg customers that though!

My beagle just ate a quarter of the chicken feed because I accidently left the bucket open. I'm going to go look into a rubbermade storage bin that way it'll be too tall for her to go in. Dog is such a pig! Beagles are so cute until you notice they use that cuteness to be evil!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

My kittens were eating the chicken starter that I spilled on the floor the other day ... at least they cleaned it up so I don't get any more mice. They are 7 months old have been learning to be hunters, so far I have found 3 dead mice, 2 birds and an un-known number of butterflies...

My wife brought home two feral cats recently to help with mice, squirrels, etc.

The shelter gave her a bag of some crazy expensive cat food. I told her “don’t feed that to the cats...feed it to the squirrels to make them taste better!”

 

[FortCluck]

My wife brought home two feral cats recently to help with mice, squirrels, etc.

The shelter gave her a bag of some crazy expensive cat food. I told her “don’t feed that to the cats...feed it to the squirrels to make them taste better!”

Do you guys just leave the cats outside? I really want to have an outdoor cat, but I am so nervous because I have never had one. I have one cat that lives indoors, but he is scared of outside... He was actually a feral kitten when I got him and once he was inside he never wanted to go back out.

 

[Chicken Heel]

I have had hundreds of chickens in my lifetime and all have been fed table scraps, including raw potato peelings, without incident. Maybe I have just been lucky.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Our chickens get meat as well when we have scraps of it, which is kind of rare in this household. Sometimes when we have a roasted chicken carcass we will put it out there and they will pick it clean. Some people say that you shouldn't do this because it will cause cannibalism, but last time I checked chickens don't know what cooked chicken looks like or tastes like.

Yeah, when we make soup with a roasted chicken carcasses, I give the bones/scraps to the flock, which they love.

If anyone expresses concerns about cannibalism, I just say “it’s OK, they didn’t know that guy”!