The Buckeye Thread

[slfarms]

Cool read Slfarms
Who knew they had taste buds. Interesting. This is what I like to see on here. We learn something and who knows how that will help down the road. It's also funny what some chicks will go for zucchini etc. and some will ignore pumpkins etc.
thanks for the read !

Mine love the zucchinis and steered clear of the pumpkins as well. They weren't very keen on watermelon either.

Tomatoes they won't touch.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Birds have an interesting sense of taste. They have taste receptors like other animals, and their general structure is essentially the same as that in other vertebrates. The starling and chicken have a few dozen taste buds as compared to 25000 for the cow. The chicken has all the taste buds at the back of the tongue with the front half of the tongue highly cornified. In the chicken, the taste buds are so far back that it would appear that by the time it can taste something, it is too late to change its mind about swallowing it.
Most birds do not respond to what we describe as sweet. The parrot and some of the fruit-eating birds do, but the domestic and song birds do not respond to sugar as do humans. Blackbirds on an adequate diet do not appear to respond to sugars, certainly they do not avidly select dextrose, maltose or sucrose in water in a choice situation. They do, however, reject xylose which can cause an eye condition.
Birds responses to sour are different from ours. They are more tolerant of sour. Chickens will take acidic fluids down to a pH of 1.5, and the blackbird's re- sponse is somewhat similar. At slightly higher pH they exhibit a preference.
Commercial efforts to flavor chicken medicines are ludicrous. When an animal is sick, it stops eating, but the drive to drink continues for a period of time. Therefore, medicines are commonly administered in water. If medicines to be used for fowl are acid they are commonly neutralized and then sugar is added. The sugar does no good and neutralizing reduces the acceptability. To get medicine into a bird, the thing to do is put in the minimum amount of medicine so that the bird will not find it offensive. The other thing is that water should be cool or even cold; and the third is that the solution should be on the acid side. These three points will insure the maximum possible acceptance by the bird.

Unl-edu

sl, I have seen this first hand. The first year that I had chickens, I read that hot pepper (dried red) would be a natural dewormer. I put it in the feed and they wolfed it down right away, then after a minute, they started sneezing and coughing and leaving the feed alone. Kind of like a dog grabbing a hunk of meat that it later finds it can't choke down without ripping it apart. It seemed mean to give them the red pepper and I never tried it again.
It stands to reason just observing birds when you through out various produce that they must have taste receptors of some kind when they will readily eat things like tomatoes or apples, but not bother with carrots and other root vegetables. Or perhaps it is texture in that case? My birds go crazy for crumbles and pellet forms of feed, but turn up their nose at first when I start feeding a meal/mash. Perhaps that is an argument more for texture? But the crumble and pellet smells much sweeter and appetizing even to me when I open the bag up.

 

[cgmccary]

Birds have an interesting sense of taste. They have taste receptors like other animals, and their general structure is essentially the same as that in other vertebrates. The starling and chicken have a few dozen taste buds as compared to 25000 for the cow. The chicken has all the taste buds at the back of the tongue with the front half of the tongue highly cornified. In the chicken, the taste buds are so far back that it would appear that by the time it can taste something, it is too late to change its mind about swallowing it.
Most birds do not respond to what we describe as sweet. The parrot and some of the fruit-eating birds do, but the domestic and song birds do not respond to sugar as do humans. Blackbirds on an adequate diet do not appear to respond to sugars, certainly they do not avidly select dextrose, maltose or sucrose in water in a choice situation. They do, however, reject xylose which can cause an eye condition.
Birds responses to sour are different from ours. They are more tolerant of sour. Chickens will take acidic fluids down to a pH of 1.5, and the blackbird's re- sponse is somewhat similar. At slightly higher pH they exhibit a preference.
Commercial efforts to flavor chicken medicines are ludicrous. When an animal is sick, it stops eating, but the drive to drink continues for a period of time. Therefore, medicines are commonly administered in water. If medicines to be used for fowl are acid they are commonly neutralized and then sugar is added. The sugar does no good and neutralizing reduces the acceptability. To get medicine into a bird, the thing to do is put in the minimum amount of medicine so that the bird will not find it offensive. The other thing is that water should be cool or even cold; and the third is that the solution should be on the acid side. These three points will insure the maximum possible acceptance by the bird.

Unl-edu

Very interesting, slfarms. Thanks.

Most of what I say in regard to taste and other senses is solely based upon my personal observations and experiences. I do know that whatever taste a chicken has is very different than ours & very limited based upon what I have observed. I have never noticed them react any differently to the ACV or any additive to their water (with the exception of one time I accidently used a high % bleach in a water cup, and the bird did not drink any of it).

I notice chickens do NOT seem to taste cayenne pepper or react to it because I have added in abundance to their feed, and they eat normally (no matter the degree of cayenne). As well, I have seen them run with the hottest peppers in their beaks that I would have to use gloves to handle. A chicken's sense of touch with their beak seems to be more important than any taste sensation. The texture, for instance, of many things poisonous to them, (certain plants, berries, mushrooms) -- well, they seem to know by the feel and avoid the poisonous but will devour something OK (even though the same color or resemblance). And some things not poisonous to some birds are supposedly poisonous to chickens (such as holly berries).

Some of the things my Buckeyes grab and run with are almost comical. I have learned NOT to try to take it away or they will attempt to swallow quickly. A Buckeye hen was running with an object the other day. I always try and see what it is without trying to necessarily take it away (I have observed all kinds of things -- even a chipmunk one time). This Buckeye hen the other day had a scrap of equine hoof the farrier had left. The other hens were in hot pursuit.

Also interesting is learned behavior. For instance, I have a coop (family / group) that will eat certain things while another (separate) coop will not touch those things & vice versus -- to me this appears to be a matter of learned experience for the particular coop -- so they do learn what to eat too. If I want a particular group to eat something that they will not eat, then I use a hen from the particular group as the mother hen to a clutch from a separate coop and introduce the food. The entire clutch will take the food affinity back to whatever group they belong to & sometimes the whole group learns to eat the new item. These are just some things I have observed about my chickens eating.

 

[cgmccary]

sl, I have seen this first hand. The first year that I had chickens, I read that hot pepper (dried red) would be a natural dewormer. I put it in the feed and they wolfed it down right away, then after a minute, they started sneezing and coughing and leaving the feed alone. Kind of like a dog grabbing a hunk of meat that it later finds it can't choke down without ripping it apart. It seemed mean to give them the red pepper and I never tried it again.
It stands to reason just observing birds when you through out various produce that they must have taste receptors of some kind when they will readily eat things like tomatoes or apples, but not bother with carrots and other root vegetables. Or perhaps it is texture in that case? My birds go crazy for crumbles and pellet forms of feed, but turn up their nose at first when I start feeding a meal/mash. Perhaps that is an argument more for texture? But the crumble and pellet smells much sweeter and appetizing even to me when I open the bag up.

Funny. The cayenne has never had any effect on my chickens, and I have used it for years. It initially keeps away the mice but they develop a liking to the pepper after awhile. Groups develop an affinity for this or that. I have a group that will eat shredded carrots, another will not. One group loves BOS, another leaves most of it. One group eats pumpkin, seed and all, another will not -- a lot is what they learn too.

 

[cgmccary]

Quote:
I agree with you. It can even be that it was the best bird at that moment or depend upon the judge (i.e. what he looks for in that breed) -- one only has to look at double shows to know this to be true.

 

[cgmccary]

Mine love the zucchinis and steered clear of the pumpkins as well. They weren't very keen on watermelon either.

Tomatoes they won't touch.

My Buckeyes love tomatoes (I have to put wire around the vines) and will eat watermelon down to the skin.

Mine also will devour persimmons, figs & muscadine grapes (they jump and get them off the vine).

 

[Minniechickmama]

deleted by poster

 

[slfarms]

Is there something wrong with you birds, Sarah?  LOL!  Mine LOVE cukes, zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkin...anything fat and juicy.  You give them carrot peels and they will turn to compost before they get eaten.
As for taste.... when I first started with chickens, I had read that hot red pepper mixed in the feed was a natural way to deworm.  I put it in.  They went right at the feed, but after a minute when the sneezing and coughing started, they walked away.  Was it taste or the annoyance of the sneezing/coughing from the pepper, I don't know.  Perhaps both.  I never tried it again.
I do know that when I feed crumbles or pellets, my birds can't get full enough fast enough.  The love it.  But I use a meal/mash in summer when I have a larger number of birds to feed for cost's sake.  They go on strike and don't eat for about 2 days.  Then they get hungry and wolf it down.  But when I go back to crumbles, they don't hesitate.  I am sure it has something to do with taste as it even smells good and sweet to me.  Whatever they mix into the processed feed, they like it. You can smell the brewer's yeast in the crumbles and I think that is what they like, that sweet, malty flavor of it.

Nope nothing wrong with them. I even tried those fat tomato worms. First bite and they spit it out.

We've used cayenne and ground peppers and never had an issue they the feed.

Goofy birds

 

[Minniechickmama]

My apologies on the repetitive postings. My computer is being a pain in the butt today. I thought it erased on me, so I retyped. I will remove the repeats though.

 

[fowlman01]

I agree with you. It can even be that it was the best bird at that moment or depend upon the judge (i.e. what he looks for in that breed) -- one only has to look at double shows to know this to be true.

I have had fourth place in one show and res of show in the other in one of those dual shows. that is the largest spread I have experienced. If the same bird wins big 3 or 4 times with different judges, it is probably a pretty good bird. I am not counting fairs in this observation.

Walt