worry about chemicals leeching into fermented food?

[Jewelwing]

I'm just starting my first flock (they're just over a month old), and so far I've fed them their fermented food in the plastic chick trough feeder I originally bought for them - with the top removed, now that their heads are bigger. Now I'm thinking about what to get to give them their fermented food in once they're big birds living in the coop. I've seen some pretty nifty designs people have done, like sections of PVC pipe or gutter.

But I'm worried about the chemicals that might leech from the PVC into their food, and then into their eggs. I've so carefully fed them non-GMO organic food! The aluminum gutter I looked at seemed like it had a coating on it, so that worries me too.

Thoughts?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

pvc is used for domestic water supply so I doubt there is any leaching to be of concern.

 

[Jewelwing]

Yeah, but not once it reaches the house - then it has to be copper or PEX. The drinking water that is in the PVC pipes before it reaches your house is moving all the time, not sitting and soaking up vinyl chloride, so although there is some leaching going on, it's hopefully not a lot. And it seems like fermented food might soak up more since it's acidic (I'm just guessing on that one). The EPA classifies PVC as Group A, a human carcinogen, and chronic oral exposure has been shown to result in liver damage.

So anyway, I worry. I guess the best food container would be glass, but that doesn't seem very practical for chickens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

And it seems like fermented food might soak up more since it's acidic (I'm just guessing on that one).

Good Point

So anyway, I worry. I guess the best food container would be glass, but that doesn't seem very practical for chickens.

Glass or stainless would be better