what about greens?

[lovie chick]

How much "green" food is too much? I know with rabbits too much can cause diarrhea. Once in a while I hang up romaine lettuce that they like to tear at also cabbage. But how often is it okay? Also I read that chickens shouldn't have citrus but our neighbors across the street give them everything. They told me that in Russia they throw out all kinds of leftovers for their birds. That seems a little iffy to me.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Well in that case you can't feed your chickens grower crumbles , laying pellets, or starter mash, not even scratch grains, hulled oats, or cracked corn, because all commercial chicken feeds of all descriptions is industrially processed out the yang-yang. As the scientific paper in the following link proves it is a good thing that chicken feed is as processed as it is today because without processing no one could keep their back yard broiler flock healthy.
http://www.zootecnicainternational....ue-and-hygienic-status-in-broiler-feeds-.html

It is my experience that chickens generally hate pellets with mega amounts of green stuff in them, like alfalfa meal and that chickens may well starve before they will breakdown and eat said meal or pellets.

Yes but that's not what people mean when they make say in common parlance that processed food isn't good for chickens.

thank you

I used to program feed mills and know what is in the food. There is no high fructose corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, sucralose, aspartame, MSG, BHT, aluminum phosphate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, propylene glycol alginate, polysorbate 60, red dye #40, yellow dye #5, blue dye #1, artificial flavor, et. al..

Sure, it is processed in that the grains and legumes are ground, slightly cooked and with added nutrients missing in the grains essential to the health of the chicken for which it was formulated. Things like vitamin A and D, essential amino acids like methionine and lysine, and minerals like selenium.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Chickens are omnivorous and will eat most anything we eat - just no processed foods - which should include bread as it is processed.
They won't overeat greens. I wouldn't limit them. They'll nibble and will consume about 10% or so of their entire intake in greens.

 

[KaylaBird]

I've read that treats (anything non feed) should only make up 10% of their total diet. Good luck figuring that out!
I say just give them treats, they will still eat their feed and will love you for the greens. If you think about a full free range foraging bird, they are not eating much feed anyway, but instead a mixture of bugs and greens/grasses.

Heres a chart on treats and what chickens 'should'/'shouldn't' eat:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-treat-chart-the-best-treats-for-backyard-chickens

I have known people who take all of their kitchen and compost scraps and throw them straight onto a compost pile in their chicken run regardless of what the scraps are and just let the chickens pick through.
I also lived in Nepal for 5 months where the chickens roam free and picked through all sorts of trash piles along the sides of the fields. If you think of most chickens in the rest of the world where they roam relatively free, they're probably doing a lot of things that would horrify a lot of people on this site. Its all a matter of perspective.

There are different levels of caring for your chickens but theres no one right way. I don't think you should go around feeding your chickens citrus all day every day but I also don't think if they came across it and happened to try some, that they would die instantly.
But we love our chickens and only want the best for them!
So follow the chart as a guide and use common sense and you should be just fine!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

... If you think of most chickens in the rest of the world where they roam relatively free, they're probably doing a lot of things that would horrify a lot of people on this site. Its all a matter of perspective.

...
So follow the chart as a guide and use common sense and you should be just fine!

All good points but I especially love this one.

 

[Janet Pesaturo]

No limit on greens in general. I would just avoid giving them lots of the same single type of green every day. The more variety, the less likely they are to develop nutritional imbalance. I also tend to avoid giving them processed and/or salty foods, but a little is fine. Everything in moderation.

 

[donrae]

Pastured or free range birds generally get all the greens they want. They're much better (generally) about knowing what's good to eat than humans are! I feed my flock swiss chard every day, keeps the yolks nice and orange and they love it!

 

[donrae]

I've always wondered about folks saying that about rabbits......what do wild rabbits eat? Don't they eat greens? What else do they eat? I'm not a rabbit person, so these are honest questions. We were just over at a friend's who has some domestic rabbits that live wild in the yard, they don't feed them any other feed. I can't imagine they have constant diarrhea?

 

[cackleberrycam]

I've read that treats (anything non feed) should only make up 10% of their total diet. Good luck figuring that out!

As much as they can eat of treats in fifteen minutes is 10 percent of thier total diet.

 

[Kiasmama]

I think it is more that people give rabbits greens that have a lot of water content such as lettuce. If you give them "good" greens that have a lower water content then they will be fine. For some reason when people think of feeding greens they generally think of lettuce and not all the other good greens that I throw in my juicer, lol.