What are treats taste best to chickens?
- Vegetables: Lettuce, beets, broccoli, carrots, kale, swiss chard, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers
- Herbs: Lavender, mint, oregano, parsley, cilantro, thyme and basil
- Perennials: Daylilies, hostas, daisies, roses, coneflowers and ferns
What are some good treats for chickens?
Vegetables and Fruit
- Favorite fruit and vegetables include: When it comes to fruit and vegetables, the vast majority of them are fine to feed to your flock, there are a few that are ...
- Frozen veggies and fruit. ...
- Meat. ...
- Yogurt. ...
What are healthy Chicken Treats?
Healthy Chicken Treats from your garden or backyard: Grass Clippings. Provide plenty of nutrients, including protein for your flock and make their eggs more nutritious. Dandelions . These may be a scourge for lawn growers, but chickens love them.
What do chickens eat-best food for chickens?
2 Here's what chickens and hens love to eat from the kitchen: Beef and pork scraps (including gristle, tendons, and fat) Cooked rice and pasta Cooked vegetables Dairy such as milk, cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese Eggshells and oyster shells (for calcium) Fats and oils (congealed to pudding texture) Fish and fish skin (but avoid bones) Fresh fruits (apples, grapes, and bananas to name a few) More items...
What Kinds of Foods Should I Feed My Chickens?
Like all other animals, chickens need several crucial ingredients to stay happy and healthy – and producing lots of eggs!
15 Best Chicken Treats
There is no shortage of nutritious and easy treats for chickens, but remember that quantity is often more important than quality when it comes to feeding you flock.
What Kinds of Treats Should I Avoid Feeding My Chickens?
Chickens can – and will! – eat just about anything, but that doesn’t mean that you should feed them everything. In general, the following items are off-limits as treats, or should be fed extremely sparingly:
How Often Should I Give My Chickens Treats?
Chickens can get about 90 percent of all of their nutritional needs from their feed.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal can be an excellent treat for your chickens in the winter. Cook the oatmeal to make it soft and warm. Pour it into feed pans in the coop for a warming oatmeal treat. If you’re feeling especially generous, cut up some bananas or strawberries, and add them to the oatmeal.
Cottage Cheese
Chickens will go crazy over cottage cheese straight out of the tub! Serve cottage cheese cold in the summer for a cooling treat. The bite-size pieces are easy for chickens to eat and they love the cheesy taste. You can also add chopped broccoli to make it extra special.
Yogurt
Yogurt is another dairy product that your chickens will love. Stick with plain yogurt as flavored yogurts can be full of sugar and have other added ingredients. Yogurt is a perfect summer treat to help cool off your chickens. You could even take it to the next step and know exactly what ingredients you’re feeding your chickens with homemade yogurt.
Fruit
Chickens will eat many of the fruits that are good for them, but they are especially fond of berries and melons. They tend to avoid citrus fruits — which is good because they can be dangerous for chickens to eat.
Vegetables
Chickens love vegetables. Feed chickens vegetables that are fresh and not canned. Canned vegetables are usually packed with high levels of salt that aren’t good for your chickens. Squash, Brussels sprouts, corn radishes, kale, and sweet potato make great treats for chickens.
Meat Scraps
You may be feeding meat scraps to your dog or cat, but don’t forget about your chickens. Chickens are omnivores and need meat, too. Trim any fat from the meat before you feed it to your chickens. Cook the meat and cut it into small pieces. You can feed your chickens any type of meat including poultry, red meat, and fish.
Scrambled Eggs
Who else cooks for their chickens? 😂 these are from the eggs I found the other day. Luckily, none of them floated today, so I scrambled them, shells and all, and fed them back to the chickens. The birds were very happy. FYI, the shells are obviously a great source of calcium, but did you know that eggs are a top source of selenium as well?
Basic Nutrition for Chickens
Every chicken needs protein, vitamins, minerals, fats, and carbohydrates to grow muscle, lay eggs, and prevent a multitude of health problems…
Essential Nutrients for Chickens
Protein – To support healthy feather and muscle development, all chickens need protein.
Why Give Chicken Treats?
Giving healthy chicken treats is a simple way to variate their diet and keeps chickens interested in their food.
What are the Best Chicken Treats?
Healthy treats for birds should be enriched with protein, calcium, vitamins, and minerals that support feather growth, build strong immune systems, and help hens produce beautiful eggs with tough shells.
What Treats Can Chickens Eat?
You want to keep chickens happy by giving them the occasional treat but with so many foods to choose from, how do you know which of these are safe and healthy?
FAQs
Backyard chickens can be given treats through the course of the day to bust boredom or when they spend most of their time inside the chicken coop.
Healthy and Unhealthy Treats for Chickens – A Complete List
To help you make the best choices when it comes to snacks for chickens, we’ve compiled a complete chicken treat chart so you can easily distinguish healthy treats from unhealthy treats.
1. Oatmeal Balls
I like these little balls. The reason is that it doesn’t take a lot of them to keep your chickens happy. They are made of all-natural ingredients that most of us have around the house for baking purposes.
2. Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits
I love fruit and yogurt parfaits. Well, guess what? So will your chickens. They are able to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables without facing adverse effects of them and dairy is very similar.
3. Left Overs
Not everything we eat is always healthy. However, if you eat a healthy meal around your table and have some left then go ahead and toss it to your chickens.
4. Meal Worms
Mealworms are a great snack that is packed with protein for your chickens. They are also a very budget-friendly snack considering you can raise them yourself.
5. Watermelon
Chickens love fruits, especially watermelon. I think it’s because the fruit is mainly made up of water so it keeps them hydrated and cool during a hot day with the extreme juiciness of it.
6. Egg Shells
Eggshells are actually a treat to chickens. The reason is they love the calcium they get from them. Which makes this treat very easy and affordable.
7. Flock Block
This recipe is great and seems to be fairly inexpensive to make. The best part about this block is that it is healthy for your chickens and also appears to be a way to keep them from being bored.
Chicken Feed and Supplements
We’ll start with the obvious, what can chickens eat? Chicken feed of course!
Feed Chickens Bugs
There’s no denying it, one of the the best things you can feed to chickens is bugs!
Feed Chickens Weeds and Flowers
One of the most satisfying things to feed your chickens is the weeds that pop up in your yard and garden!
Feed Chickens Kitchen Scraps
Food waste from the kitchen is an unfortunate fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be a problem when you have chickens!
Feed Chickens from the Garden
If you have a vegetable or herb garden, or even an orchard, your chickens can reap the benefits!