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Your Birds' Diet

We all like to eat well and poultry are no exception! Luckily their commercial food is remarkably inexpensive. They will also make productive use of kitchen scraps that used to get thrown away in the trash!

Base Diet

  • Pelleted Rations- Poultry "Kibble," Choose your according to your birds age-species-needs.

  • Layer Ration is for laying hens and other egg producers.

  • Chick Starter is for chicks

  • Waterfowl need UNMEDICATED starter, as they will overdose on medicated chick starter

  • Gamebird food is for Waterfowl, Turkey, Pheasant, Peafowl.

  • Peafowl appreciate a bit of cat food in addition to give extra protein.

  • Organic Feed = Organic Eggs

Needed Extras

  • Grit is used to grind the food in the crop; it allows birds to "chew" their food. Leave grit out for birds to use as needed

  • Oyster shells and crushed eggshells supply needed extra calcium to laying birds, for egg formation. Supply free choice.

Trash or Snack?

Your birds will have their base diet of commercial chicken feed and grains, but just like humans they appreciate a varied diet. A plus to providing a diverse diet is that the quality of your eggs will be far superior with rich, orange yolks rather than that "pale battery hen yellow."

Consider feeding:

  • Stale Bread

  • Greens, lettuce, cabbage, collards

  • Worms and other creepy-crawlies

  • Pasta & Leftover Mac-N-Cheese

  • Any and all vegetable and fruit trimmings (avoid potato peels and eyes! POISONOUS!)

  • Sour milk (poured over bread) - A classic farm favorite for poultry!

  • COOKED rice ( i.e. Take-out leftovers...)

  • Garden weeds, dandelion, plantain, purslane etc. AVIOD Nightshade!

  • Cooked Egg and eggshell (crushed, they recycle the calcium)

  • Cheese

Peter J. Willcütt
urbanagrarian.com@gmail.com
612.719.1988