What food treats do you use for chickens?

[PeeperKeeper]

Mine love Old Fashioned Quaker Oats. But grapes are always a big hit.
It's fun to watch them try to eat spaghetti al dente. (just enough firmness not to fall apart when picked up)

 

[little_grey_bantam]

I use... pinky mice lol
Whenever we thaw out frozen pinkies and none of the reptiles will eat 'em, we feed 'em to the flock and they relish them!

During hunting season, when I'm cutting up deer, we'll give them a deer leg (with 98% of the meat removed) and they will actually picked it clean!

Good protein source and it makes the feathers really shine! Yup... instead of attack dogs, we have attack chickens! O.O they will eat your leg!

 

[JudyH]

Wow, and I've been worried about what I can give to my chickens... it sounds like just about anything!

I picked a few of the ends of bread off of my sandwich yesterday and gave it to them and I was kinda scared that the bread might "stop them up".... is it ok to feed them bread items?

 

[little_grey_bantam]

I'm unsure... we often lose the bag of bread (in the cubbard) and typically give it to them when they expire and they seem to love it, but I haven't fed them in excess. At least, they STOP when they're full?

I wasn't sure about feeding them deer meat, until I was told by a lady who showed chickens that it was alright. I've had hens wolf down some serious meat. I try to make sure they actually get some grain into them and sadly, they ignore most of the layer and any crumbled looking feed.

Giving them a deer bone is a treat... makes naughty chickens divert their mischevious minds elsewhere lol instead of the garden.

I'd be worried about feeding them something like peanut butter lol they could choke on it? Or milk... I don't know if chickens can process milk lol and I've heard old wive's tales, don't feeed pigeons rice or they'll explode... so I dont feed the chicken's rice too much, unless it's cooked... I don't want exploding chickens!!! O.O

 

[Tamrajh]

I tried bananas tonight and about got knocked down! They loved them, peeling and all!
And yes, chickens love meat. Especially chicken.

 

[ManDash]

On a hot summer day, they go crazy over the melon rinds and seeds/innards. I have also noticed preference differences between the chickens. I would advise that you try different things and see what they respond to. other favorites include: tortillas, blueberries, mealworms and grass clippings.

 

[pioneer]

We feed ours all the leftover scraps too. They do eat almost everything. I hung my bird feeder too low and one of the hens would jump up and hit it so the feed would come out. I also left the ladder under the bird feeder and there was a chicken on every step up to the feeder. I have a pic but can't post any yet. LOL

 

[teach1rusl]

Mine come running for raisins - and you can carry those in your pockets. So maybe...???

 

[KenK]

So far out of my garden they like tomatoes the best, they will pick the seeds and most of the pulp out of an overripe yellow squash but they don't really attack it like they do a tomato. Oh and corn, I pulled a couple ears off some stalks that got blown down in a storm but weren't really ready to eat yet. They picked that clean in a hurry.

 

[dannifer]

so I read all these posts here about treats and had to laugh because my chickens wouldn't eat any of this stuff! Tomatoes out of my garden - nope! Green beans - nope! scraps from our dinner - nope! They "turned their noses up" at all of it and it sat there and rotted collecting ants until I had to clean it out myself. So are mine just the only picky chickens around or what? lol

On another note, I've been trying to read all the chicken books I can get my hands on and they all say to be very careful what people food I give them. There was a whole chapter in one devoted to what you shouldn't feed a chicken from your kitchen. It said many things can make them sick or even be like poison to them. So I found it odd that so many on here were throwing them anything. ?!