Is it safe and healthy to feed chickens potatoes and grains?

They can eat chicken feed, cracked corn, oats, groats, greens, oyster shells (crushed), mealworms, nightcrawlers, crickets, berries and carrots just to list a few items. This is by no means an all inclusive list. You can find more acceptable foods at www.backyardchickens.com.

Choose a commercial pelleted diet labeled as "all flock" or "flock raiser". This is a complete diet for most chickens. For the hen, you will need to supplement calcium, especially if she is a layer. You can offer her crushed oyster shells freely. Do not use a layer diet for both. The calcium levels would be too high for the rooster leading to potential health issues for him. The website www.backyardchickens.com is an excellent resource for information regarding the husbandry and feeding of domestic chickens.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Potatoes are safe for dogs to eat, as long as they are cooked and given in small pieces so that dogs do not choke on them. Potatoes are high in carbs, but provide vitamins including vitamins A and C, as well as iron. Pieces of cooked potato can be given as a small snack, but should not constitute a large portion of your pet's diet. I hope this is helpful!

If you are concerned about your birds getting cold you should keep them in a wind-proof enclosed shelter and provide them additional heat with a heat lamp. The feed you described is appropriate provided they are in cold weather. You should not feed corn if the temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit or 32 degrees celsius.

If your hen is free ranging, ie, can walk and eat wherever she likes, then she will teach her chicks to eat insects and seeds and grit and you will not need to add anything. If your chicken is in a coop and cannot take her chicks out to forage, then you need to buy either commercial baby chick starter food or feed them insects and worms and chopped greens. You can also feed them chopped boiled eggs. You can also mix finely chopped hard-boiled eggs with oatmeal ground lentils, ground maize, flax, millet. You can add worms and other insects. They will always need fresh water available.

Thanks for reaching out. Rice is a carbohydrate and has little nutritional value and can lead to obesity. The carbohydrate could lead to intestinal bacterial overgrowth. A little should be okay but should not be offered much. Good luck.

If he is completely weaned yes you can as it is generally speaking a bland diet. Ideally a more balanced and complete diet should be given, I would recommend a commercial one designed for kittens. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.