Tyler Durden's Fight Club Blog

by Kathy Shea Mormino, The Chicken Chick

When I was preparing to welcome my first dozen baby chicks home, I spent nearly a year reading books and researching online to absorb all I could about caring for chickens. The internet is a powerful tool, but it is also the birthplace of many a cyber-legend and I came across much conflicting information abouttreats for chickens. I wanted the facts in order to make the best decisions possible for my pet chickens, not stories, experiences or opinions about what my neighbor’s great-great grandmother may have fed the chickens she considered livestock.

In my effort to get to the bottom of some of the most common chicken treat misconceptions, I researched extensively before making my treat choices. My chickens are only fed treats, snacks and table scraps in moderation because excessive treats and the wrong treats can be harmful to their health, stunt growth, shorten their lives and interfere with egg production. In making decisions about treats for your chickens, you may wish to consider the following five most common myths and facts.

MYTH: Scratch is a type of chicken feed.

FACT:Scratch typically consists of cracked corn and a mixture of grains, which tends to lack an appreciable amount of protein, vitamins and minerals. Scratch should be thought of as chicken candy, certainly not an integral part of a nutritious diet. According to Gail Damerow in The Chicken Health Handbook, “(s)cratch should be fed only sparingly, if at all. In growing birds, insufficient protein leads to feather picking. In laying hens, insufficient protein reduces egg production and hatchability of incubated eggs and makes them fat and unhealthy.”

MYTH: Chickens should not eat avocados.

FACT: Chickens can eat the flesh of avocado. However, avocado pits and skin contain persin, which can be toxic in significant quantities.

MYTH: Chickens should not eat raw potatoes or potato skins.

MYTH: Chickens should never eat onions.

FACT: Chickens can eat onions, chives and garlic in small quantities, occasionally. Sufficient quantities of onion and garlic can be harmful to chickens, causing hemolytic anemia, aka: Heinz anemia, a blood condition resulting in chickens with weak legs, listlessness and a disheveled appearance. Bottom line: if I’m not going to eat a bowl of raw onions, chives or garlic, I’m not going to feed it to my chickens as a side dish. 

MYTH: Yogurt is good for chickens.

FACT: The live bacteria cultures found in yogurt are good for chickens’s gut health, not the yogurt itself. I asked Dr. Rob McCoy, PhD , vice president of Manna Pro Poultry Nutrition his opinion about feeding chickens dairy and he indicated that birds are not equipped with the enzymes necessary to properly digest milk sugars. Considering the fact that mother birds do not nurse their young, it makes perfect sense. Some yogurt on occasion is fine and does contain beneficial cultures, but too much can cause digestive upset and diarrhea. How much is too much? It depends on the bird. A better choice would be to give chickens probiotics to promote good gut health.