My mother - in - law was always o.k. with leftovers : Her Canis familiaris Amber and Tigger made short work of anything leave on a home plate or goat god . We do n’t have dogs — our boy Bryce is seriously allergic to them — but we have something just as effective : chickens ! Our birds are always quick to get their feeding on and thirstily festinate toward us when they see something in our hands .
While our bird ’ nibbles tend to be remnants from our refrigerator , a number of fowl owner fertilise their great deal fresher food . As omnivores , chicken happily devour almost anything collapse to them , no matter of whether it ’s good — or appropriate — for them . I field a handful of question each week on our farm ’s societal media situation from chicken proprietor worry about what they ’re feeding or have give their feathered friends . Some of the most common — and unusual — business organisation fall out here :
1. Cereal
My friend Maria whips up porridge as treats for her hens on parky winter forenoon .
“ My girls do it their hot mash , ” she state me .
Who would n’t enjoy something warm on a wintry mean solar day ? Hot food grain grain — oatmeal , millet , cornmeal , faro and rice — each make a suitable collation for chickens , which make sense , considering a large percentage of poultry feed consists of natural grains . Hot cereal , however , should not be a replacement for provender , as the latter offers important nutrient cut for fowl that human cereal deficiency . As for cold breakfast cereals ? Plain grains such as original Cheerios , Corn Chex and unsweetened Shredded Wheat are OK on juncture . Sweetened , brightly colored cereals , on the other mitt , contain too many sugars and stilted semblance that poultry ( and maybe people ) should not ingest on a regular groundwork .
2. Corn
I recently shared a novel approximation for keeping birds nerveless during the warm atmospheric condition : freezing a muffin pan occupy with water and novel corn kernels , then popping out the clavus - filled crank muffins as fresh volaille treats . A couple of flock owners expressed concern that this is risky for raspberry . One woman state that she ’d hear corn escalates a chicken ’s internal temperature .
“ There is always metabolic heat being farm when foods are digested , ” notes fowl nutrition expert Dr. Darrin M. Karcher , the propagation poultry scientist at Purdue University . “ There is no need for business organisation when feed corn to one ’s flock . think volaille diets are corn - soybean free-base , if this hearsay were real then we would see more problems in our poultry production . ”
3. Yogurt
Many of us eat fresh or laboured ( Greek ) yogurt for the probiotic flora incur within . Several poultry keepers have order me over the geezerhood that they give their birds the keep up treat : a container of plain yogurt every good morning so the poulet can also do good from those probiotic flora . Every now and then , I have field a head from the same flock owner , interest that their birds might be stomach fromcoccidiosisbecause of the preponderance of diarrhea . While there is a chance these chickens might harbour the eimeria parasite that get coccidiosis , the more likely causa of this feather state of flux is the ingested yoghourt .
“ Dairy is not a food that chickens would meet in nature , and it is not part of a domestic razz ’s diet , ” put forward Karcher . “ I would anticipate diarrhea from those birds assimilate yogurt . There might be some probiotic force from the dynamic refinement , but there areother resourcestailored for fowl that would give the snort those finish . ”
4. Chocolate
lately I received a message from a backyard flock steward , somewhat panic that she had just poisoned her boo . With the arrival of spring , she had get a regimen of increase activity and healthy eating . This involve giving the rubble food in her buttery to her fowl as kickshaw … include what was leave in her package of emollient - filled chocolate cupcake . Someone then told her that chocolate is poisonous to weenie . She message me , certain that her birds were going to lurch over any min .
Chocolate poisoning , or toxicosis , does indeed pass off in dogs and some other animal specie , have living - endanger cardiac arrhythmias and central nervous system disfunction . Death by drinking chocolate has been reported in livestock as well , but these typically occur when animals are continually fed cocoa by-product or repeatedly ingest mulch made from cocoa - bean hulls .
“ give way the minimal amount of coffee in those cake and that this was a one - metre matter , I would not be concerned , ” observes Karcher . “ However , a general rule is do NOT feed your chickens chocolate . It is not a normal item they would find for consumption , anyway . ”
5. Avocado
I absolutely adore avocado — tasty , healthy and filling . I eat several each week , and I have to continually stop myself from putting the skins in our “ chicken carbon black . ” While the fruit is wholesome for humanity , aguacate can causemyocardial necrosis — harm and decease to the fondness tissue — in chickens , turkey and many other bird and mammal mintage . When eat or develop food with alligator pear , the safest place for the seeds , hide and other nonedible part is in your garbage can . If your birds spare range of mountains , definitely do not add these to your compost pile .
