Why are people feeding birds yogurt?

[jbkinor]

I've noticed some people mention feeding their birds yogurt. What does that do? Is it good for birds who are on antibiotics?

 

[speckledhen]

It helps with the gut flora and digestion, especially when that is upset by antibiotic treatment; that is, as long as there are active cultures in it , and I think most yogurts today have them.

 

[jbkinor]

Will they just eat it if you plop a blob on the ground? Plain yogurt is best I guess?

 

[AtRendeAcres]

& they look so cute eating it

 

[Mrs MIA]

Oh yes... yogurt is wonderful for them. I put homemade plain natural yogurt out for my girls and it's gone within minutes. They're like pirahna!
Plain all natural (no added sugars or fruits) is best. If they don't know what it is, sprinkle a little crumbles on it... once they taste it, it will be gone!

 

[jbkinor]

Cool. I'll get some for mine today. They love treats. Plus I have one hen on Terramycin for her sluggishness and dark comb (respiratory?) problem so she would probably benefit from some. I'm going to try to get Tylan or Gallimycin or Baytril to put her on instead if I can find someone around here who carries it.

Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[Mrs MIA]

Just put it out in a bowl... they'll lick it clean.

 

[Tailfeathers]

I did a search on hear for "Yogurt" and found over 100 pages of threads. Obviously I could not read them all but the overwhelming theme was "Yogurt is good for your chickens."

With that being said, check out what I just received from Dr. McCrea from Peter Brown's Forum, "It was not a good idea to give dairy products to your poultry unless your goal was to induce diarrhea. Chickens do not produce the enzyme Lactase and so therefore cannot digest lactose (the sugar found in dairy products). Dairy products are fine as a probiotic for humans but are not suggested for use in poultry. " -Dr. McCrea

I have read oodles of posts recommending yogurt as a probiotic for humans. So what do y'all think about this?????????

God Bless,

 

[fowltemptress]

My uncle is terribly lactose intolerant but can still eat yogurt, so I looked that up. Here's just something that came up first on a google search. If you scroll down they mention eating yogurt, but I'll copy and paste the important part here.

Eat yogurt. The organisms that make yogurt what it is, also produce lactase to digest the lactose contained in yogurt, says Naresh Jain, M.D., a gastroenterologist in private practice in Niagara Falls, New York. "Secondly, the bacteria themselves also probably break down the lactose in the milk. Most people with lactose intolerance don't have it very severely," Dr. Jain says. "Maybe 70 to 80 percent of all otherwise healthy lactose-intolerant people should be able to tolerate yogurt quite well."

Dr. Sabesin notes that "yogurt has only about 75 percent of the lactose content of an equal amount of milk." That difference, Dr. Sabesin says, may be all you need to be able to tolerate lactose. About 4 to 6 ounces a day is about all you need to keep gas away.

Here are some other tips on yogurt.

Choose regular over frozen. The only problem with frozen yogurt would be if it has been repasteurized, Dr. Jain says. Yogurt is made from pasteurized milk. But sometimes manufacturers repasteurize the yogurt before they freeze it. "This would kill the beneficial organisms that produce lactose," he says. So try to find yogurt that has not been repasteurized.

Choose nonfat. "Fat slows gastric emptying," Dr. Jain says, "Yogurt with fat in it sits in the stomach for a longer time. This means stomach acid may have more of a chance to kill the organisms."

And since lactose digestion takes place in the small intestine, you want your organisms to get there as soon as possible, even if your stomach acid doesn't kill them. Although this is still only a theory, Dr. Jain says, it's probably best to stick with nonfat yogurt.

Eat it every day. "We gave study subjects yogurt on a regular basis every day," Dr. Jain says, "and we demonstrated improvements in their digestion."

Eat yogurt before ice cream. "If you eat yogurt 5 to 15 minutes before you eat ice cream [or other milk products], probably any symptoms of lactose-intolerance would be less," Dr. Jain says.

Clickety click . . . more googling . . . Probiotics and active bacteria culture may improve lactose intolerance. The bacterial strain commonly used in yogurt can produce lactase enzymes. Therefore, people with lactose intolerance and children suffering from intestinal infection can usually tolerate yogurt with an active culture. . . . that's pretty much the gist of everything I'm finding . . .


I'm guessing that has something to do with why chickens are able to eat yogurt without problems.

 

[Tala]

The bacteria in cultured milk products generally solve the lactose problems. I can eat yogurt, buttermilk, and cheese without any problems. Give me ice cream or milk and a few hours later I will think I'm dying. It's worse at night if I'm not eating other things with it. I discovered this the hard way when my dad used to serve brownies and milk before bed. I would wake up at 4am and think I was dying from the gas and cramps.