The worst things to feed your chickens.

[neo71665]

I feed all my table scraps to either the coons or the chickens.

 

[Hwoarang]

Why not dry rice? Mine love it. I know there's that meme about birds exploding or some such mythology, but my birds have demonstrated any number of times that dry rice is fine by them.

I think it's not got for their digestive system as it then swells up lots once eaten. There's a higher chance of food poisoning, and without cooking the rice they don't get as much of the nutrients.

And I'm not sure about your analogy, it's a higher risk not certain death. Like saying I give my dog cooked chicken bones and he's fine, or my uncle smokes, he's proven time and time again that it's fine by him...

 

[oellian]

I think it's not got for their digestive system as it then swells up lots once eaten. There's a higher chance of food poisoning, and without cooking the rice they don't get as much of the nutrients.

And I'm not sure about your analogy, it's a higher risk not certain death. Like saying I give my dog cooked chicken bones and he's fine, or my uncle smokes, he's proven time and time again that it's fine by him...

My point is two-fold: 1. birds eat seeds all the time. Rice is a seed. All seeds swell when they're hydrated. It is my understanding that the notion that rice is dangerous is simply false. The fact that my birds eat raw rice and are fine isn't proof that eating rice is safe. You can't prove a negative. It IS evidence that eating raw rice is safe. I've been working in scientific research for decades, and so I'll take that approach, and ask you, most respectfully, for evidence that eating raw rice has hurt chickens. I'm always open to learning something new, or that one of my beliefs is false.

And as to nutrition, I would argue that, generally speaking, chickens eat raw food. So it's irrelevant to me whether cooking something for them would increase their nutritional benefit, unless they're in distress, and need special attention, but they aren't, and they don't.

 

[Parront]

My point is two-fold: 1. birds eat seeds all the time. Rice is a seed. All seeds swell when they're hydrated. It is my understanding that the notion that rice is dangerous is simply false. The fact that my birds eat raw rice and are fine isn't proof that eating rice is safe. You can't prove a negative. It IS evidence that eating raw rice is safe. I've been working in scientific research for decades, and so I'll take that approach, and ask you, most respectfully, for evidence that eating raw rice has hurt chickens. I'm always open to learning something new, or that one of my beliefs is false.

And as to nutrition, I would argue that, generally speaking, chickens eat raw food. So it's irrelevant to me whether cooking something for them would increase their nutritional benefit, unless they're in distress, and need special attention, but they aren't, and they don't.

I would second this. I would feed mine raw rice if it was convenient, but I use my extra cooked rice because that is easier for me. I would not feed them raw potatoes or beans, those have other reasons why they need to be cooked. I do give them anything off our plates, in moderation. I think it saves on the food bill, and they really go for it.

 

[oellian]

View attachment 2557394
Alright I updated it a bit and even added some of my favourite questions (hint:Cheetos ).

I honestly don't understand why any of the things on your list are there. Is there any evidence that any of these would harm a chicken, IF the chicken were to eat it? Chickens free range all the time, and surely all of these things become available to them eventually, and I've never heard anyone say that free-ranging is bad because the birds will poison themselves. That being said, I've noticed that my birds won't eat things in the onion or citrus families. And salt is a necessary dietary ingredient for any creature with a nervous system, so that's one should definitely be removed from your list. Like many other responders to this post, I feed my chickens pretty much anything that I think they might like that comes out of our kitchen and garden, and we have never had any problems that are plausibly related to diet. And if you want to put "flowers" on your list, your list of exceptions needs to grow by a factor of about 100. Mine love the flowers of henbit and ground ivy, for example. Some of your entries genuinely puzzle me. "Lollies"? I'd be surprised if a chicken expressed any interest in a hard candy that they couldn't eat in one bite.

Call me crazy, but I trust the chickens to know what not to eat.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Having some fun with this. This is what Snopes had to say about birds eating rice a couple of decades ago. The reason you should not throw rice at a wedding has nothing to do with protecting birds fom exploding, it's to protect people.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/against-the-grain/

Actually raw potatoes are fine. When I sort the ones I grow I often toss the smaller ones to the chickens. Just enough that they can immediately clean up. The danger comes from the potatoes that have turned green due to exposure to the sun. The green itself isn't the problem but the green is a indication of the exposure to the sun. That sun exposure can concentrate a toxin that can harm a human or a chicken. Cooking doesn't help. You should not feed those green potatoes to your family or your chickens, cooked or raw.

If you check the label, chicken feed contains salt. Certain sea birds like gulls have a way to excrete excessive amounts of salt. That way they can drink salt water. Chickens can't do that. The warning should not be about salt, it should be about excessive salt.

Practically anything we eat contains a substance that can cause harm to us or chickens if it's eaten in excess. That's where a lot of these rumors come from. There is a basis to them but they are taken way out of context. Raw potatoes do contain a substance that can harm you. For your spouse to off you by feeding you raw potatoes they'd have to sweet talk you into eating more than 50 pounds at a sitting. Fat as I am I just couldn't handle that. A chicken isn't as big as a human but their crop isn't that big either. They physically can't eat enough to harm themselves from that toxin. They may get the runs though.

Cabbage contains a toxin that can harm chickens and humans yet cabbage is often listed as a great treat for chickens. It is a great treat. I forget the exact numbers but for a human to eat enough cabbage to harm themselves they'd have to eat a few pounds a day and do that for a few weeks every day so the toxin could build up to a harmful level.

Dosage is a very important part of this. In general, one bite won't kill them. There are a few things I actively avoid but very few. If you feed treats in moderation it's highly unlikely you will harm them a all. For many of these things if you feed them in excess you might upset their digestive system but probably won't cause any lasting harm unless you just keep doing it every day.

 

[Parront]

Having some fun with this. This is what Snopes had to say about birds eating rice a couple of decades ago. The reason you should not throw rice at a wedding has nothing to do with protecting birds fom exploding, it's to protect people.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/against-the-grain/

Actually raw potatoes are fine. When I sort the ones I grow I often toss the smaller ones to the chickens. Just enough that they can immediately clean up. The danger comes from the potatoes that have turned green due to exposure to the sun. The green itself isn't the problem but the green is a indication of the exposure to the sun. That sun exposure can concentrate a toxin that can harm a human or a chicken. Cooking doesn't help. You should not feed those green potatoes to your family or your chickens, cooked or raw.

If you check the label, chicken feed contains salt. Certain sea birds like gulls have a way to excrete excessive amounts of salt. That way they can drink salt water. Chickens can't do that. The warning should not be about salt, it should be about excessive salt.

Practically anything we eat contains a substance that can cause harm to us or chickens if it's eaten in excess. That's where a lot of these rumors come from. There is a basis to them but they are taken way out of context. Raw potatoes do contain a substance that can harm you. For your spouse to off you by feeding you raw potatoes they'd have to sweet talk you into eating more than 50 pounds at a sitting. Fat as I am I just couldn't handle that. A chicken isn't as big as a human but their crop isn't that big either. They physically can't eat enough to harm themselves from that toxin. They may get the runs though.

Cabbage contains a toxin that can harm chickens and humans yet cabbage is often listed as a great treat for chickens. It is a great treat. I forget the exact numbers but for a human to eat enough cabbage to harm themselves they'd have to eat a few pounds a day and do that for a few weeks every day so the toxin could build up to a harmful level.

Dosage is a very important part of this. In general, one bite won't kill them. There are a few things I actively avoid but very few. If you feed treats in moderation it's highly unlikely you will harm them a all. For many of these things if you feed them in excess you might upset their digestive system but probably won't cause any lasting harm unless you just keep doing it every day.

You are a much better writer than I am, I was being lazy and not going into these great details. I would think a good rule of thumb is to not make an entire diet of any one thing, for us or our animals. It is amazing all the rumors about feeding out there! For the best feeding, you just can not beat variety. Some say that avocados are not good for chickens, but when we lived in California, the chickens loved being under the avocado tree. They did not eat the pits, but they ate the meat and the bugs on the fallen over-ripe exploding avocados! Very good eggs that year!

 

[Chicalina]

I noticed garlic on the list. Take it off!

Garlic is excellent for their digestion. Mine love it. I buy big sacks of minced dried garlic from the feed store (aimed at horses).

 

[Chookchicken]

I forgot to post the updated version:

This is a simple list and I couldn’t upload everything on the list because it’s to big. Before going at me about things on my list read through the pages before this and realise that I didn’t come up with most of these ideas myself

Also like everything some things on this list are okay to give chickens in small doses.

 

[Chookchicken]

"Lollies"? I'd be surprised if a chicken expressed any interest in a hard candy that they couldn't eat in one bite.

Another person asked me this question to. Lollies are ‘candy’ where I live.