Thank you for the advice it sesms to be working..

[chickengirlnm]

I had a problem with my hens eating feathers and was worried it would hurt them... so I asked for help/advice.
Was told my girls needed more protien - ok no problem, was told to give cat food - so with that off to the store I went to get cat food for chickens LOL boy does that sound strange.
threw out a few handfuls even to the ducks - everyone kinda looked at me for a minute as to say " what the crap mom we are not cats !! " but after a few minutes someone gave it a try and it was crazy feeding frenzy after that.
well I have noticed they still eat feathers but not as much and they are not picking on each other anymore.
also I read on here somewhere - someone gave thier chickens baby food - well i have a box of gerber oatmeal ( left over from a sick pup ) brand new box just sitting there so I thought what the heck I 'll try it-- OMG that was just crazy my girls ( and clyde) acted like they have never seen food before they went totally NUTS - the ducks not so crazy about it.

so between the cat food and gerber food my chickens are plenty happy LOL
but if they start meowing I am going to have a few words about that LOL

thank you all for the help
Julie

 

[Cuban Longtails]

My chickens love cat food, and they clean up the dog food that gets left behind too. I have to feed all my animals at night after the birds go to roost, or I'll have dogs snapping at chickens and chickens running off the cats.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

After reading that advice on BYC, on Tuesday I went out and got some canned cat food to try on my girls. Normally, they are hesitant about new food, but they tore into the bowl like crazy. Yeah, chickens eating cat food...

(What's funny is that my cats like the chicken layer pellets. Somebody once did a rant on here about how all their animals wanted other animals food.)

 

[TxChiknRanchers]

Hey just a note: We had the same problem and the extra protien worked for the most part but after watching the 7 wk old EE"s I found that there were only two main perpetrators we put those two in with the older BO's and they got an attitude adjustment and everyone is feathering out nicely now and Stew and Gumbo are the low end of the pecking order in the BO Tractor.

 

[wegotchickens]

To keep the peeps from meowing, buy them some crickets from the bait store (cheaper than pet store). Not only do they get protein, but it's a real hoot to watch them chase the little buggers down!!