Dog food for chickens?

[Loverexnchicks]

Hi so I’m a new chicken owner, and my dad got chicks a few months ago. The chicks have grown up into chickens now but my dad has been feeding them dog food everyday. It’s large dry dog feed soaked in water. I did a Google search and found out that it isn’t great for them and should only be given as a treat, but my dad doesn’t listen to me since he “used to have chickens and fed them dog food everyday which made them bulky and healthy”. I try to even out their feed by giving them what they’re supposed to have with healthy additives. Is it fully bad and could harm the chickens if they’re fed dog food everyday?

 

[nuthatched]

Yes, it's not good for them at all. The overall nutrition is meant for mammals not for large birds. They were bulky and heavy because they were obese. Birds aren't supposed to be bulky.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Ignorance is abundant.

But telling your dad he's doing it wrong, because you read it on the Internet, isn't going to get you anywhere. Nor is appeal to the authority of someone whom he has never met, no matter how much more we might know on the subject.

Recommend you change tactics. Point out that quality feed for chickens is CHEAPER than dog food. And intended to meet their nutritional needs.

40# of Adult Purina Dog Chow is about $28. That makes it about $12 more expensive than a 50# bag of feed from my local supplier, and about $4 more per bag (again, 50#, so I'm getting 25% more) than a bag of Purina All Flock at TSC or another nearby farm store.

The dog chow, btw, has too much fat - to get the protein your chicken needs, he or she will need to take in more than twice as much calories as it would normally consume, and its anyone's guess if its getting the vitamins or minerals it needs, other than Calcium (not enough for laying hens, fine for Roos), Phosphorus, and Vitamin A and Vitamin E

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Why is too much fat / too many calories bad for chickens?

Its called Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Syndrome