He gets treats and sometimes I try and mix in dog food and dog vitamins and supplements.
Feed it. No worries. The olive oil is safe, apart from the high fat - and as a treat, you can let it slide. There can't be much oil on it regardless.
Grains are really good. I'd pop the popcorn but cracked corn is so much healthier.Cook the black beans and rice too because they can digest it much better. One pound of cooked rice lasts my flocks a couple days mixed with other things. I also peel and cook withered potatoes and cook sweet potatoes and squash. Those veg which have vitamin A- the vitamin A releases better when cooked (not over cooked). They get cooked winter squashes- seeds and all. Summer squash can be given raw. It doesn't take up much time if you have a pressure cooker to cook the grains such as rice and beans. I have used a microwave for winter squashes and sweet potatoes, even white potatoes. The beans have enzymes which will give the chickens a belly ache if not cooked. Raw rice has microorganisms which should be cooked out. I don't bother to cook oatmeal, but in subzero windchill they get warm drinking water and warm freshly cooked oatmeal which they loved and warms them from the inside. I add fresh veg any time I can. I mix the stuff with some of their regular feed. Outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage that don't appear esthetically pleasing on the plate go to the chickens as does tomato trimming and even pepper cores. They don't feel the heat of hot peppers and its a good source of vitamin A to give them those cores too. They love applesauce mixed with their feed. I found some expired jars that had just expired for super cheap at a surplus grocers and bought a few cases. It's already used up but the chickens loved it , even the cinnamon variety. I have always lived stretching a dime to a dollar because I raised his, hers, ours and theirs kids and food was the biggest chunk of our budget- even more than our mortgage! That is until we started gardening on a big scale. My chickens are super healthy and produce eggs non-stop year round. I even trim off any mold on cheese and give it to the birds. If I find expired vitamins or coated vitamins I know I can't digest they are mixed in with their foods. I run any coated vitamins through a blender. I use an old thrift store blender for the coated vitamins because they can quickly dull blades and I'd rather use the sharp blades for our foods. I always keep a sack of scratch grains for my birds on hand at all times. One can increase the pound for pound ratio of feed by sprouting grains. I keep them in a bucket of warm water which I rinse out each day to prevent bacteria growth. In a couple days they have sprouted and increased greatly in volume. A good way to get fresh veg into chickens when the garden's no longer providing. I even feed my chickens my spent pepper plants. (but if I would ever get powdery mildew they would not be fed them) and I hunt down overgrown lambs quarters(a weed). I uproot the tall ones and place the leafy stalks into their run and they have a lot of fun with them. They love the extra male zucchini flowers to eat too. Even in spring and fall I make a trip through the garden and grab what eggplants and such that are not growing to size or are going to be used. BTW if you want to increase the protein content of their food- eggs are a great idea, but scramble them or hard boil first. It helps to prevent them from developing a desire to eat their own eggs. I keep a sack of boon worms /soldier fly larva on hand for protein boosts for my gals. They don't need much but a little every now and then keeps them healthy and strong. The only thing my chickens suffered was the male got a little bit of frost bite on his comb. But he's going to watch over his ladies no matter what, cold of not. we had -9 windchill here in eastern Tennessee- and we all avoid icy roads, they are killers.
This reply was fascinating. Thank you for being so thorough!
Lots of good info here. I agree Except for the advice to peel the potatoes. Well, if they’re green, I’d peel but otherwise no peeling. My dad always said the best nutrients are just under the peel.
