What your chickens can and can't eat!

[Brooks_]

It's an urban legend that started in the 80s.

"It's a myth. There is no reason why birds, including small songbirds, can't eat rice," said Ned Johnson, a professor of biology at Berkeley who lectures frequently on the food and feeding of birds."
Source:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/against-the-grain/

I really hate it when Snopes is right about something.

 

[Kiki]

Boy am I glad I had something to do today.

 

[Brooks_]

Boy am I glad I had something to do today.

Like buying chicken treats?

 

[RadEggs]

Food	Yes/No
Acorn Squash, fruit, skins and seeds	Yes
Alfalfa	Yes
Almonds	Yes
Almond Butter	Yes
Amaranth, raw	No, Raw amaranth contains growth depressing antinutrients
Amaranth, cooked or extruded	Yes
Ant	Yes, Typically chickens won’t eat ants. Be sure no pesticides were used on any colony
Apple	Yes
Apple, seeds	No, Contain cyanide

Banana	Yes
Banana, skin or peel	Yes
Basil	Yes	Benefits the immune system
Bean Sprouts	Yes
Beans	Yes	ONLY cooked beans, never dry
Beet, leaves/leafs/greens	Yes
Beets	Yes
Bell Pepper	Yes
Bird Seed	Yes

Edamame	Yes	do NOT feed uncooked soy
Egg shell	Yes	Great source of calcium
Egg, boiled/scrambled/cooked	Yes	Only feed cooked eggs, so they don’t start eating their own eggs
Eggplant	Maybe?	Much debate on whether raw eggplant is safe for chickens, as it is in the nightshade family. Cooked is safe for chickens
Eggplant, leaves	NO	Contains Solanine
Eggs	Yes	Cooked only, to prevent encouraging egg eating

Fish	Yes
Flax seed	Yes
French Fries	No	Salty/fatty foods are unhealthy

Green beans	Yes
Green peppers	Yes
Grits	Yes

Ham	Yes	In moderation due to salt content
Honey	Yes
Honeydew	Yes

Kale	MAYBE
Kidney beans	Yes	MUST be cooked
Kiwi	Yes

Lemon	In moderation
Lettuce	Yes

Maggots	No	Risk of botulism
Mango	Yes
Mealworms	Yes	Save money by raising your own
Meat scraps	Yes	Avoid fat, only feed cooked scraps, and only in moderation
Mice	Yes	My chickens love them!
Minnows	Yes
Mushrooms, store bought	Yes
Mushrooms, wild	No	Potentially toxic

Nightcrawlers	Yes
Nuts	Yes	Only shelled and unsalted

Oatmeal	Yes
Oatmeal, uncooked	Yes
Oats	Yes
Okra	Yes
Olives	Yes	Limit cured olives due to salt
Onion	No	Can flavor eggs in smaller quantities. In larger amounts, can cause anemia
Orange	Yes
Orange peels	Yes
Oregano	Yes	Excellent for immune health & as a water additive

Papaya	Yes
Pasta	Yes	Feed in moderation, as it contains nearly no nutritional value
Peaches	Yes	Remove pit
Peanut Butter	Yes
Peanuts	Yes
Pears	Yes
Peas	Yes
Pecans	Yes	Only shelled and unsalted
Pepper seed	Yes
Peppers	Yes
Pickles	Yes	Limit due to salt
Pineapple	Yes
Plum	Yes	Remove pit
Pomegranate	Yes
Popcorn, popped	Yes	Unsalted, unbuttered only
Popcorn, unpopped	Yes
Porridge	Yes
Potato, cooked or mashed	Yes
Potato, peel	No	Contains Solanine
Potato, raw	No	Contains Solanine
Potato, sprouted	No	Contains Solanine
Pumpkin	Yes
Pumpkin, Seeds	Yes

Quinoa

Yes

Only washed or cooked, as raw contains saponins unpalatable to poultry

Radishes, and greens	Yes
Raisins	Yes
Raspberries	Yes
Raw chicken	No	Risk of salmonella
Rhubarb	No	Contains some oxalic acid
Rhubarb, leaf	NO!	Highly toxic, contains oxalic acid
Rice	Yes	Cooked only
Rice, brown	Yes	Cooked only
Rice, cooked	Yes
Rice, uncooked	No
Rodents	Yes	Chickens naturally eat rodents. It is a good idea to keep poisons out of the area so chickens do not eat a poisoned mouse, leading to the bird being poisoned

Scrambled Eggs	Yes
Seaweed	Yes
Shrimp, meat and shell	Yes
Snails	Yes	Can carry gapeworm
Spinach	Yes
Squash	Yes
Strawberries	Yes
String beans	Yes
Sunflower Seeds	Yes	Great for molting birds
Sweet Potato	Yes

Tomato, ripe fruit	Yes
Tomato, leaf or green fruit	No	Contains Solanine
Turkey Carcass	Yes	Cooked only

Walnuts	Yes	Only shelled and unsalted
Watermelon	Yes
Watermelon, rind	Yes
Wheat	Yes
Wheat Berries	Yes

Xylitol

No

Yam	Yes
Yogurt	Yes	Feed in moderation as chickens cannot digest milk. Good for probiotics

Zucchini

Yes

Wait, doesn't orange (and other citris) significantly increase the risk for fatty liver?

 

[RadEggs]

I see ham, olives, pasta, and pizza as "yes" with a warning about salt, and meat as "yes" with a warning about fat.

But french fries say "no" because of fat and salt. A few bites of French Fries are not going to be a big deal-- I think they should be "in moderation" as well.

I literally cannot eat veggies straws in the yard anymore, Esther is to crafty, and somehow can always steal them.

 

[RadEggs]

Why does dry rice say no with no explanation? Many people feed their chickens dry rice with no issue. I'm not saying it should be the main food source, but I also don't see what the difference between cooked and "raw" would be. And it's fine to give chickens cooked rice in moderation.

I cook the rice, or just give them leftover unused rice, it's a big hit. Also Oatmeal, I recomend Oatmeal. They won't eat cucumber, though.

 

[Brooks_]

Mine like cucumber.

 

[BDutch]

Sadness! I don't have broody hens.

You should be glad, it’s still winter you know. A sound hen knows spring is a better season to become broody.

 

[BDutch]

Once upon a time, chickens were wild creatures, running around in their native habitat and scratching and foraging for food. So before they could pop down to the shop and buy themselves some lay mash, what on earth did the wild chickens eat for food?




What on earth do you mean - ‘wild chicken’?

Firstly, what do we mean by ‘wild chicken’? Well, one of the first recognisable breeds of wild chicken was the ‘Jungle Fowl’. This breed is pretty much the foundation of all chicken breeds we know and love today! The Jungle Fowl can still be found in the wild in places like Indonesia, India and Southeast Asia. You can also find them in Australia, however they are not running loose - many people continue to breed them for their spectacular colours. So when we refer to the ‘wild chickens’ that make up our domesticated chickens ancestors, think of the Jungle Fowl!

Many chicken keepers ask this question because they want to replicate the chickens natural diet rather than give them commercial feed. Well, before the chickens were fed their daily scraps at 5pm from their keepers, their diet was made up of a number of different food sources. Well, if you’re interested in bringing your chickens diet back to that of their fore bearers (within reason) and finding out what chickens eat in the wild, here’s a guide to the food of the fowls of old!

Crunchy, juicy, tasty insects! A smorgasbord for wild chickens

Insects found from foraging were the staple of the wild chickens diet. Termites, ants, even grasshoppers are rich in protein and nutrients, and very tasty for our little chickens! Another delicious treat that a scratching, foraging chicken would also come across is a big, fat, juicy worm! Mmm...worms are another great source of protein for active chickens, to help keep them healthy.

Should I still feed these to my chickens?

Modern domesticated chickens that free range still enjoy the tasty benefits of insects, as they peck them up off the ground and out of our precious garden beds. A pest-free garden is quite the benefit for the avid gardener! Chickens can also enjoy tasty meal worms as a treat, but give it to them in small quantities as too much protein is not good for them. Can you imagine if the wild chickens got given a handful of meal worms without working for it? They would have gone, well, wild!

Wild chickens got their leafy green fix from natures plants

Plenty more here!

A new origin story for domesticated chickens starts in rice fields 3,500 years ago​

Two studies lay out how the birds went from wild fowl in Southeast Asia to the dinner plate

The new story begins in Southeast Asian rice fields. The earliest known chicken remains come from Ban Non Wat, a dry rice–farming site in central Thailand that roughly dates to between 1650 B.C. and 1250 B.C. Dry rice farmers plant the crop on upland soil soaked by seasonal rains rather than in flooded fields or paddies. That would have made rice grains at Ban Non Wat fair game for avian ancestors of chickens.


These fields attracted hungry wild birds called red jungle fowl. Red jungle fowl increasingly fed on rice grains, and probably grains of another cereal crop called millet, grown by regional farmers, Peters’ group speculates. A cultivated familiarity with people launched chicken domestication by around 3,500 years ago, the researchers say.

Plenty more history at Science News

The laying hybrids and broilers of today are not the same kind of chickens as the Jungle fowl and Red jungle fowl from Asia.

Survival of the most commercial breeds/types of chickens changed the weight gain (broilers) and laying capacity in the first two years (laying hybrids) enormously. It must have changed their diet needs too.

 

[NatJ]

The laying hybrids and broilers of today are not the same kind of chickens as the Jungle fowl and Red jungle fowl from Asia.

Survival of the most commercial breeds/types of chickens changed the weight gain (broilers) and laying capacity in the first two years (laying hybrids) enormously. It must have changed their diet needs too.

It has probably not changed the list of what foods are dangerous vs. safe for them to eat, but I agree it has almost certainly changed the amount of food they need, and the balance of which nutrients they need in what amounts (obvious example: laying an egg every day requires more calcium than laying a dozen each year, so the percent calcium needed in the diet has gone up.)