Chickens eat almost anything, but there are certain things that your chickens should NOT be eating.
Most people throw out all food scraps and admit that their chickens are addicted too and love all scraps and junk food. Just because they are eating it does not mean that it is good for them.
Individual Tastes
You’ll probably notice your chickens have food preferences.
Over time you’ll come to see what your chickens go crazy for and what they don’t really like much and you can adjust your treats and scrap feeding accordingly.
Keep the Complete balanced Feed Flowing
It’s a good idea to limit the amount of "scraps" you have available to your chickens so that they won’t stop eating their complete balanced feed like our Peak Layer Pallets.
Chickens are a bit like children in this regard. If you feed them lots of candy it will spoil their dinner. Our peak layer has a bunch of nutrients and other things that your chicken needs and won't get through scraps. They need at least 80% of their diet to be a complete balanced feed to keep a healthy balance.
When feeding scraps the best time to do this is in the afternoon once they have filled themselves up mostly on a complete balanced feed. Then they can have a small amount of scraps towards the end of the day so they are not gorging themselves on non nutritional food. if chickens are fed too high of a diet on just scraps this will cause them to stop laying.
Food to Keep Away From Your Chickens
1. Raw potatoes and potato skins. Raw potatoes are hard for chickens to digest while the green parts of potatoes and the sprouts are toxic.
2. Rotten food. If the food is moldy, stinky and gross, don’t feed it to your chickens!
3. Raw peanuts and dried beans. (Dried beans are safe if they’re cooked first.)
4. Chocolate. Seems like MANY animals should stay away from chocolate…which is okay with me. I don’t want to share my chocolate with them anyway!
5. Junk food. Yes, your chickens can eat it but it’s not the most healthy. Will it kill them? Probably not. They might love it but is it good for them? No more than it is for us.
6. Some garden plant leaves such as eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes (usually chickens tend to stay away from these plants on their own).
7. Avocados. These can be fatal for your chickens.
8. Some types of flower seeds such as sweet peas, morning glories and angel’s trumpet.
9. Raw meat. Chickens can eat meat (even chicken), but don’t feed it to them raw because of risk of disease.
10. Apple Seeds. The apple itself is safe for your chooks but the seeds are toxic.
Chickens are essentially pretty easy to keep happy…but occasionally there are problems and knowing about the potential dangers is a step in the right direction for keeping your flock healthy.
