Treats I feed to my chickens

[Princesschicken1]

I love giving my chickens treats. Here's a few things I feed them. 1 seeds (mostly black sunflower seeds)

2 basil and parsley
3 scratch

4 leeks
5 cucumbers
6 alfalfa
7 lettuce
8 corn (mostly corn on the cob )
You would be reading this all day if I put a full list. I hope your chickens like these treats.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

Looks like you are giving a nice variety of stuff, I bet they love that! I just caution you to make sure you keep your treats below 10% of their total daily intake to not diminish nutrients of the formulated ration. Are you also feeding a formulated ration, and just sharing your snack list?

BOSS is high in fat and most others you mention are low in protein and other nutrients.

Curious, what form is the alfalfa that you're feeding?

Your ground looks bare (as many are this time of year)... you could try sprouting your BOSS as a fun experiment.

As long as most nutrient needs are being met already... treats are great boredom buster and enrichment.

 

[Raeja]

interesting! My chickens in the past and present did not like cukes. I do give scratch feed and they got/get corn on the cob. I have to buy frozen right now because corn is not in season in Wisconsin. I alternate frozen corn and hard boiled eggs cut in half. They also get the stuff I don't use from veggie trims I don't use when making salads, pasta, etc

 

[Shadrach]

If your chickens are kept in a coop and run and you supply a commercially produced feed, preferably between 18% and 24% protein. And, if you only have females calcium at around 4% for regular layers, then the treats you mention are great fun for you but not quite so good for your hens.
The 10% only treats recommendation only makes sense for chickens kept in an average sized run.
If you fully free range or even if you let them out of the run for a couple of hours a day, then they will find all sorts of things to eat and it is not possible to maintain any regulation on their nutrient intake. Under these conditions (free range) I would scrap all the treats you mention, apart from the herbs in small quantities and consider feeding them a teaspoonful of meat or fish each once a day.
Chickens are omnivorous and most will happily eat meat and fish. The advantage to feeding meat and fish over the treats you mention is both meat and fish have all the necessary proteins and most of the vitamins and minerals your chicken needs.
You could split this in to two, or more treat sessions if you wanted, but bear in mind the teaspoonful limit per day.
You will still need to supply a commercial feed with the percentages mentioned above.
I like to give the free range chickens here treats, but the quantities are very small.
.
To put this in perspective. I will give half a walnut split between 6 chickens for example, or a grape each per day.
They do get treats at roost time, after they foraged and eaten the commercial feed, but it's a level handful between 15 to 20 chickens.
Chickens love treats but the truth is too many of the wrong type of treats are just not good for the chickens long term health. They can cause their internal organs to accumulate fat which can lead to organ failure, give mobility problems and decrease their egg production and in more extreme cases cause long term reproductive issues.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

interesting! My chickens in the past and present did not like cukes. I do give scratch feed and they got/get corn on the cob. I have to buy frozen right now because corn is not in season in Wisconsin. I alternate frozen corn and hard boiled eggs cut in half. They also get the stuff I don't use from veggie trims I don't use when making salads, pasta, etc

Don't forget most chicken feeds are already corn based so adding more may not be beneficial. If you're going frozen... try peas instead.

Also.. noticing you're in Wi... please note the common myth that "corn keeps birds warm" is total bull. Feathers help keep birds warm in addition to their natural metabolism. Feathers are made from 90% protein and it's AMINO ACIDS. But that isn't to say that adding excess protein is good either... balance (according to guidelines the poultry nutrition experts have laid out) is key.

Eggs are great pick me up during times of need and occasional treat, but for informational purposes... according to energy content (aka calories not weight or volume) eggs are 34% protein and 64% fat.

 

[Raeja]

I shall try frozen peas on my next trip to grocery store. Interesting note that Pixie will eat her crumbles if in a cage in the house however outside is a different story. Not sure why because when in house she gets her crumbed (which she eats more of ) and a small cob of frozen corn, no scratch feed

 

[Princesschicken1]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

Looks like you are giving a nice variety of stuff, I bet they love that! I just caution you to make sure you keep your treats below 10% of their total daily intake to not diminish nutrients of the formulated ration. Are you also feeding a formulated ration, and just sharing your snack list?

BOSS is high in fat and most others you mention are low in protein and other nutrients.

Curious, what form is the alfalfa that you're feeding?

Your ground looks bare (as many are this time of year)... you could try sprouting your BOSS as a fun experiment.

As long as most nutrient needs are being met already... treats are great boredom buster and enrichment.

Thanks for telling me about that but I don't feed them all of that in one day. They are just treats I give them in the morning. I only feed them 10% treats.

 

[Princesschicken1]

Don't forget most chicken feeds are already corn based so adding more may not be beneficial. If you're going frozen... try peas instead.

Also.. noticing you're in Wi... please note the common myth that "corn keeps birds warm" is total bull. Feathers help keep birds warm in addition to their natural metabolism. Feathers are made from 90% protein and it's AMINO ACIDS. But that isn't to say that adding excess protein is good either... balance (according to guidelines the poultry nutrition experts have laid out) is key.

Eggs are great pick me up during times of need and occasional treat, but for informational purposes... according to energy content (aka calories not weight or volume) eggs are 34% protein and 64% fat.

Thanks for sharing this but I don't feed them more than 10% treats each day.my question is why do some of my chickens eat there feathers

 

[featherhead007]

Very interesting questions!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thanks for sharing this but I don't feed them more than 10% treats each day.my question is why do some of my chickens eat there feathers

Sometimes it can just be random if you just happen to see them eat a feather. It is often blamed on low protein intake but feathers are only about 2-5% digestible protein so I don't buy that.

If they are actively plucking feathers from each other and eating them I would consider it a behavioral problem related to bullying, boredom, overcrowding, or crankiness from malnutrition not an actual attempt to replace protein.

I have also read, but not seen or verified that plucked feathers can have bloody ends... and blood is very tasty to chickens indeed.