One of the most commonly asked questions in the beginner chicken world is “can chickens eat bread?”
This information is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prevent any disease. We encourage you to make your own health care decisions in partnership with a qualified health care professional in your area before you can use the information.
Please read the Disclosure Statement Below we look at whether chickens can eat bread, as well as many other things that you should avoid feeding your chicken.
There are some common foods that you should not be feeding your chickens. What you don’t want is for the chickens to fill up their crop with low nutrient foods, and to miss out on all the goodness of the high nutrient foods.
Bread is a common food for well meaning people to feed to chickens and ducks. The problem with feeding chickens bread is that it can easily form a ball in the crop which can lead to catastrophic blockages. Yeasts and sugars in the bread can ferment in the crop which increases the pH of the crop contents, which changes the bacteria and other microbiome that grow in the crop. This can then lead on to chronic cases of sour crop that are very hard to treat. So, in short, ideally you would not feed your chickens bread. If you do decide to feed bread to your chickens, try breaking it up and soaking it with some apple cider vinegar overnight. This will both increase the acidity, making it easier to digest, as well as breaking up the fibres to help stop it balling up in the crop.
Feeding your chicken Milk ,
It turns out that chickens are lactose intolerant! Milk is high in protein and other minerals, but the lactose can give the birds upset stomachs. If you do give milk products, try small amounts of cultured ones, think yogurt or cheese as they have a lot less lactose in them.
Feeding Porridge to chicken,
There is nothing wrong with a small volume of porridge later on, but oats are very low in protein and fat, both of which chickens need. Porridge fills up a chickens stomach, so they don’t have room for the high nutrient foods they need to be eating. Oats have virtually no vitamin A, D or E and high in beta glucans that birds cannot digest. Too many beta glucans will form a sludge in the gut, causing blockages. So is not good for your Chicken.
Raw Eggs
Feeding raw Eggs to Chicken can encourage the chickens to seek out and eat their own eggs. The Chickens can also carry salmonella, raw eggs from contaminated chickens will spread the disease amongst your flock. Here are some other foods that you should avoid giving your chickens: Onions and garlic can give the eggs an off taste Fresh potato peels, especially those tinged green, contain a toxin called solanine. Avocado pits and skins both include a potentially fatal toxin called persin. Avoid feeding your flock rhubarb and citrus.
Undercooked or dried beans contain an avian toxin called hemaglutin. Generally speaking, a well fed chicken will not attempt to eat toxic foods as their only taste buds are ones for bitter food, bitter foods are usually toxic, and they are quite good at not eating them! The best advice is to feed a balanced, commercial feed first, then let the chickens eat their other food, treats or forage later in the day. This will ensure they are getting all the nutrition they need for growth and larger egg production, it will also promote good health and give higher profit in case your are into commercial poultry bussines.
