what is a good protien treat to give to my flock.

I can't swear that it makes hens lay better, but meal worms make my girls do handstands when they see them. It is referred to as chicken crack here.

 

I give my birds all sorts of stuff. I made a mistake with the size of chicken chunks once . They had no problem devouring large pieces of turkey . They are crazy for a yogurt concoction I devised when they got sick . I give them Black Oil Sunflower Seed to lure them into the coop every night . I just switched off from 16% layer to M-G 20 crumbles .

They give me better eggs with extra protein and calcium .

 

I think I read somewhere on here that dried cat food is a really good source...

 

Mine love cat food. They will also eat dog food when ralph isnt looking

 

Black Oil Sunflower Seed (BOSS) for plant protein. Along with feeder roaches that I breed (Blaptica dubia) an mealworms. The roaches, although 90% goes to my reptiles, really add up the protein due to their size an meat to shell ratio. A mealworm can't beat a 2 inch roach with an average of 36% protein. Mine have still slowed down laying wise because of the shorter days and no supplemental light. I use 16% layer as well.

 

From the BYC treats chart: * Regarding feeding CAT FOOD to chickens,



the following is from DLHunicorn in response to the listing of cat food in this Treats Chart: (A word to the wise, and thank you, DLHunicorn)



"You all know how I feel on cat food and I have posted the links and reasoning behind my objections several times ...it can potentially be detrimental to your birds health and even deadly in the right circumstances and for this reason I feel it should be left off the chart (as when you put it on it is as if you are condoning its use) I will repost here one of the sources for my objection:
http://www.omri.org/Amino_acids_livestock.html
..."While it is nutritionally essential, methionine excesses are far more toxic to poultry than similar excesses of tryptophan, lysine, and threonine (National Research Council, 1994). Force feeding methionine to excess can result in death to chicks (National Research Council, 1994). A dosage of 2 g / mature cat / day (20 to 30 g / kg dry diet) for 20 days induces anorexia, ataxia, cyanosis, methemoglobinemia and Heinz body formation resulting in hemolytic anemia (Maede, 1985). ..."

 

This morning their treat contained half a can of canned mackerel. Comes in a 15 oz. can for about $1.50 here, near the tuna. When there are lots of eggs I feed a dozen scrambled eggs. They get any leftovers which usually contain some sort of meat. Any slightly freezer burned meat gets cooked and fed to the chickens. Mine won't eat BOSS One of these days I'm going to buy some high protein game bird feed for their treat.

I don't know about more eggs, but I get better quality eggs with protein treats, especially yolks that don't tend to break, and I'm an over easy egg eater.

 

I think mealworms and grated cheese are my chickens' favorite protein snacks - they love yogurt, too, but wow what a mess - especially the Polish!

deb g
KY

 

In the summer, get some Japanese beetle traps (container type) and drop them each day, it is an instant form of protein..... they love em!!