What not to feed?

[Luv2fly]

I am a new chicken owner. I would love to giving my chickens treats and left overs. I know the basic stuff they are not allowed to have like chocolate, citrus, onions, raw potatos, avacado pits.all the stuff google tells you.

But i was wondering if anyone has any personal experience on things to not give them.

Like as an example if i had half a plate of left over spaghetti from dinner would it be ok to toss that out to them?

 

[WhiskeyTheRedd]

Anything that soaks up water and expands is a big no. Bread Rice, noodles anything like that. Ive had birds get pretty sick, and rice uncooked or cooked can expand QUITE a bit, so its really dangerous. Bread swells up inside their crop and can get them sick too.

 

[Luv2fly]

Anything that soaks up water and expands is a big no. Bread Rice, noodles anything like that. Ive had birds get pretty sick, and rice uncooked or cooked can expand QUITE a bit, so its really dangerous. Bread swells up inside their crop and can get them sick too.

Would that include bread crumbs? Because i have seen alot of diy/homemade treat recipes with bread crumbs

 

[Ridgerunner]

Anything that soaks up water and expands is a big no. Bread Rice, noodles anything like that. Ive had birds get pretty sick, and rice uncooked or cooked can expand QUITE a bit, so its really dangerous. Bread swells up inside their crop and can get them sick too.

There was an urban myth that if you threw rice at a wedding song birds would eat it, the rice would swell up and kill them. That did not happen, pure myth but it sounded good. The reason to not throw rice at a wedding is that if it gets on a hard surface it can be slick and cause falls. If you think about it, many of us feed dry chicken feed. It can swell up when it gets wet yet many of us feed it dry.

I am a new chicken owner. I would love to giving my chickens treats and left overs. I know the basic stuff they are not allowed to have like chocolate, citrus, onions, raw potatos, avacado pits.all the stuff google tells you.

But i was wondering if anyone has any personal experience on things to not give them.

Like as an example if i had half a plate of left over spaghetti from dinner would it be ok to toss that out to them?

I don't find Google to be that reliable. You can get a lot of misinformation. For example, raw potatoes are fine as long as they are not green. If potatoes are green they have ben sunburned and contain a toxin that you or the chickens should not eat. Google and a lot of people on this forum don't understand that the difference in potatoes is whether they are sunburned or not.

Then there is dosage. You often read about not feeding apple seeds because apple seeds have a poison in them. Apple seeds (and many other fruit seeds) have a poison in them but it is not enough to kill or harm something as big as a chicken. It can kill a tiny insect eating that seed.

I'm not suggesting that you feed them any of those other things on your list. They have been identified as being potentially harmful under some circumstances. Just don't do it.

But other than a very few things the chickens can have whatever you eat. The trick is to feed any of them in moderation. That will help keep dosage down but the main thing is that their feed is a balanced diet. Chicken feed contains the right proportions of proteins, amino acids, fiber, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, and such that they need. If you feed a lot of other stuff then they won't get the right balance.

The rule of thumb is to give them no more treats than they can clean up in 10 to 20 minutes. That should keep their daily intake of treats to 10% or less of their total diet. Try to vary what they get each day a little.

I'd suggest staying away from feeding them sweet desserts. They don't need a lot of sugar. Eat desserts yourself and mess up your own balanced diet.

 

[Altairsky]

Nothing sugary. Nothing overly salty. Absolutely yes to meat and fish.
White bread has no nutritional value, avoid it. Foods that are unhealthy for humans are often unhealthy also for chickens.
Swelling rice and swelling bread harming birds is a silly myth. Chicken feed swell quite a lot when wet and nobody ever complained about it. I live in a rice producing area, wild birds eat rice all the time and we have rice even in chicken feed here. No bird ever got sick from it.