Oats = bad for chickens

[TJAnonymous]

The article is about rolled/crushed oats oatmeal. Lots of folks feed a warm oatmeal cereal to their chickens and seem to not have a problem. Just remember to feed cooked rolled/crushed oat only as a treat.

This seems to suggest that it is not only cooked oatmeal (or oat meal) but also raw. The real culprit is the Beta Glucan which is a component within any form of oats. I am completely assuming that it is the Beta Glucan that causes oatmeal to gel up and thicken when you add water? I was feeding whole oats, not rolled oats, but never looked to see if they swell up in water like rolled oats do. But this article seems to suggest that they would....or at least trigger a response in a hen's intestinal tract.

The research that they are using as source data for this article (identified by sub-bullet 2) is no longer available through the link they provided.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Ok....apparently this article has come up on BYC before. And people collectively agreed that the claims don't line up with their experiences feeding oats to their chickens. So I guess I can stop fretting that my girls and boys are suddenly going to go downhill and die.

However, to be safe....I will probably lower the amount of oats I'm putting in their morning mix. I was trying to give them some beneficial fiber in the whole oats since there is little to no grass right now. But not at the risk of causing them necrotic enteritis.

 

[RiverOtter]

The pictures are what had me worried. I mean, why would anyone possibly feed oats to their chicken if it could do that to them? So you are saying that those pictures are NOT the result of feeding oats, even in a small quantity, to a chicken? The article was stating that even in small amounts, the mucous caused by the beta glucan can cause deadly consequences.

If you look at the picture, the caption says "Dramatization of the effects of", another is "intestine filled with gas" (your intestines fill with gas sometimes too, it amused you greatly as a child.)

Nothing is good for you in huge amounts. You can overdose on water, wash all the salts right out of your body. A treat is a treat. Part of a diet is part, and not the whole thing. Look at your bag of feed. I can about guarantee the first ingredient is corn. Now look up "cracked corn chickens" and get a million results on how it's junk food and they don't get enough proteins and it scratches the intestines, etc, etc.

So is corn bad? As an exclusive diet, yes. As part of a diet, obviously not. If oats flat out murdered chickens they wouldn't have made it to the 21st century, as it's a fairly staple grain. So I wouldn't worry about them having a treat. Think of it like a kid having an ice-cream cone vs ice cream for dinner. One is ok, the other, not so much.

 

[Chris2018]

When talking about poultry Whole Oats has a lot of non digestible fiber in it.
One of the reasons why game farmers would soak there oat for 7 day before feeding it to the birds is to start breaking down the non digestible fiber.
Most all the studies and good literature that I have read states you can feed up to 40% Oat Groats (Naked Oats) in there total diet. Whole Oats that has not been soaked I wouldn't feed more than 10% of there diet.
On a side note, I wouldn't feed more that 10% Barley, BOSS, and any other grain/seed that has non digestible fiber.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

So is corn bad? As an exclusive diet, yes. As part of a diet, obviously not. If oats flat out murdered chickens they wouldn't have made it to the 21st century, as it's a fairly staple grain. So I wouldn't worry about them having a treat. Think of it like a kid having an ice-cream cone vs ice cream for dinner. One is ok, the other, not so much.

Yes, people confuse “some” with “only” for some reason. It’s absurd. Salad is healthy for a person to eat, but a person who eats ONLY salad will have some nutritional deficiencies unless they make a salad with lots of “extras”.

And chicken feed isn’t magic. It’s nutritionally the minimum they need and it’s cheap and easy. But it’s not perfect. I think of it like those “diet” frozen dinners you can buy and microwave - will it give you the calories and nutrients you need to be healthy? Sure...is it the most enjoyable to eat? Nope. A person will be happier with the occasional non-frozen dinner, and a chicken will be happier with a little something other than layer feed. If what you’re adding is low in some nutrients, you compensate with something else that has more of that.

 

[Pentatonchix]

Yeah I saw that article and was kind of spooked, so it's good to see that I can give them a little bit as a treat. They really like it, so they will be happy about it.

 

[Chickstarrs]

I have been feeding my chickens quick oats (soaked in hot water like we would eat for breakfast) as a treat every morning since the snow started. I mix in scrambled eggs and whatever leftovers I might have in the fridge ( peas, rice, uneaten tomatoes and cucumbers, zucchinni shavings). Sometimes I will mix in the powdered food from the bottom of the feed bag if there are no leftovers. I thought this would be good for them since they can't free range in the snow. However, lately I have noticed runny poops. I didn't figure it was because of the oats, but now I am second guessing.

 

[NatJ]

... came across this article...

https://the-chicken-chick.com/the-shocking-effect-of-oatmeal/

So now I'm a bit freaked out. I'm horrified to think maybe I'm putting my chickens on the verge of death as a result of my ignorance.... Is this sort of thing common knowledge on BYC?

If you want a well-researched article about oats, that article completely fails.

Some time ago in another thread, I put together a long list of problems with that article:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...meal-to-chickens.1339256/page-4#post-21942543

The "beta glucans" section had particularly bad footnotes.

This seems to suggest that it is not only cooked oatmeal (or oat meal) but also raw. The real culprit is the Beta Glucan which is a component within any form of oats. I am completely assuming that it is the Beta Glucan that causes oatmeal to gel up and thicken when you add water?

Yes, oatmeal thickens when you add water--because the oats absorb water.
Try adding water to normal chicken feed, and you'll see that it abosorbs water and thickens up too. So will any other hot cereal, or a piece of bread, or noodles, or many other grain products.

Using oats as part of a grain mix should be fine.
Rolled oats instead of whole oats should be fine.
A feed based mostly on oats instead of corn could be fine, if designed properly (although I don't have the knowledge to design one.)

For people who want to give their chickens a nice dish of warm, wet feed: I suggest adding water to their normal chicken feed. It's easier and faster than cooking oatmeal, probably cheaper, and certainly is better balanced nutritionally. But oats or oatmeal are not going to poison your chickens if they have a bit on occasion.

 

[The Dork]

I have fed my chickens oats and oatmeal for over 43 years with NO problems. Zero problems. Purina made up this lie and did one crappy biased study. They paid 1 person in Kentucky to give their opinion that oatmeal causes fatal problems to a chickens digestive system, and that you should only feed them store bought Purina chicken feed. No living chickens were used in their study, and it was all done on paper. Their findings were deceptive, misleading, and false.

Purina knows that your feed bill will be cut in half if you feed oats to your chickens.....so why would Purina want you to feed your chickens oats? They DON'T want you to feed your chickens oats! Purina is trying to stop you from buying oats for your chickens with their "Oats Are Bad For Chickens" campaign. Purina would lose millions of dollars every year if everyone did fed their birds oats.

Did you know that every major chicken farm in the United States feed their chickens up to 40% oats? Purina knows this....... So why doesn't Purina go after the chicken farms? Because chicken farms make their own chicken feed and don't buy any Purina feed.

Purina targets us, the backyard chicken raising enthusiast. We are their cash cow. So Purina targets the little guy with their campaign of lies that oatmeal is deadly to chickens. Hmmmm... Ya........ See where I'm going with this?

The only ones pushing the "no oatmeal for chickens" is from those who have special interests in making money with Purina. Did you know that Purina is a HUGE sponsor of the "Chicken Chick"? Yup......Purina teamed up with the "Chicken Chick" to help spread their lies and she is one of the reasons for this oatmeal misinformation on the internet. The Chicken Chick refuses to admit to the science because it's all about greed. So be PLEASE be careful who you read warnings about oatmeal from.
Below is a FIVE year science experiment study that was actually done with LIVING chickens. Purina doesn't want you to see this.
Here's the link -
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi...

 

[The Dork]

The following is a deceiving picture that Purina's uses to scare people. Here they claim to show the effects of oatmeal on a chicken's digestive system. Instead of showing the intestine of an actual chicken who had actually eaten oatmeal, they use a stock photo of an intestine from a diseased bird with unrelated necrotic enteritis. Purina can only use these dramatizations because they have no evidence.