It might be an uncomfortable idea for some to feed chicken scraps to chicken. After all, isn’t this some sort of chicken cannibalism? Won’t there be some sort of effect on the quality of chickens?
Rachel Hurd Anger of Hobby Farms gives us deeper insight into the practice of feeding chicken scraps to chickens.
There are types of food that are absolutely inappropriate for chickens. Green potato skins, for example, and raw onions prove to be dangerous to chickens. Bread and cereal are unhealthy for them as well. Too many grains – including chicken scratch – can cause weight gain. This is something to be taken seriously because of obesity in an eight-pound chicken cues health problems quickly.
But here is the myth buster: you actually CAN feed chicken to your flock. If you have leftover chicken on the bones that you don’t want to eat, you can have your chickens eat them. As for their ability to digest it, whatever part of the chicken you can eat, they can eat as well. Since you cannot eat the bones, neither can your chicken.
However, not all chicken is healthy for chickens. If your leftover chicken is already a week old in the fridge and is something you wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) dare to eat anymore, it should head to the garbage and not to the flock. Bacteria growing on old food are not good for us, neither are they good for your chickens.
Never feed raw or undercooked chicken to your flock, especially if the chicken came from somewhere other than your own backyard. This is because there is a risk of infecting your flock with salmonella if you don’t know where the chicken came from.
Read the full article here for more information on chicken diet.