"Treats" definition, and amounts

[dbblondee]

A simple question, but, as you can see, it seems to be one of the more controversial topics on these forums.

Whether you want to call an item outside of their normal bagged feed a "treat" or "real food" is irrelevant. The important thing is that you are overall, providing your chicken with good nutrition. If you want to provide up to 100% of other things besides commercial feed, that is absolutely fine, provided you take the time to understand the nutritional requirements of chickens and make sure what you are giving them is sufficient.

If you don't want to worry about all that, commercial feed is a nice convenience. If you go that direction, most agree that giving some extra things outside of bagged feed is also fine, as long as it is small part of their diet. 10% seems like a reasonable benchmark in that regard. Even within this parameter, it is nice if you can keep the mix of extra's varied and include some protein sources in there -- meat scraps, insects, etc. The more varied, and the more quality protein, the more you are ok breaking the 10% "rule."

Free-ranging your chickens in a large nutritional diverse area and allowing them to select their own "treats," is unquestionably the gold standard, but not realistic for everyone, myself included.

I regularly give my chickens sprouted grains -- wheat, barley, millet, BOSS -- along with table scraps, weeds, garden excess, dried insects, canned sardines and meat scraps. It's always changing and very seasonable. It varies, but my chickens get between 10 and 40% of their nutrition from these extras. It took me a few years to get to this point, as I went slow, educated myself and monitored their health along the way.

As long as you are thoughtful about it, your chickens are healthy and your checkbook is still intact, there really is not a right or wrong answer.

This is by far the best answer. New chicken momma here and I am always looking to educate myself as I want my ladies healthy. Thank you!