Can Chickens Eat Oats

The fact is that oats are among the healthiest grains in the world. Oats are incredibly nutritious containing a lot of carbs and fiber. Have you wondered if chickens can eat oats? Well, that is what we are going to discuss on this page.

can chickens eat oats
Can Chickens Eat Oats

Can Chickens Eat Oats?

Absolutely, chickens can eat oats. Actually there are not many foods that chickens cannot eat. Basically everything that humans can eat chickens can eat as well, they are omnivores, which means they can eat and survive on both plants and meat.

And that is one of the good things about raising chickens, they tend not to be too picky about what they are eating. But off course,, if you want your chickens to be healthy, give you a lot of eggs, you will need to know what food is actually good for them.

If you are going to be giving your chickens oats, then we really do suggest that you keep it to some minimum. A small portion per chicken, at the most. This is because it can swells up in their stomach.

But honestly, the question isn’t so much ‘can chickens eat oats’, it is more ‘how much oats should a chicken be eating?‘. That is a completely different story.

Preparing Oats for Chickens to Eat

can chickens eat oats
Oats Mixed With Some Blueberries

Chickens can eat oats without any problem. You can make them a grain mix with oats, corn and sunflower seeds in their scratch. They would love it.

You can also give your chickens a handful of rolled oats in the morning as a treat, they will enjoin it. Same goes for whole oats. You can mix whole oats with the scratch feed.

You should be feeding a coop of around six chickens no more than three to four times per week like this. However, you will want to ensure that they have a good mixture of fruits and vegetables as well not only grains. Therefore, you shouldn’t just be feeding them oats.

Chickens love any type of berries. You can give your chickens oats mixed with blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, but even apples and bananas. They will enjoy it!

Give them different grains. Some weeks you may not even want to give your chickens any oats at all.

It is worth noting that you will need to keep constant tabs on your chickens. This will give you an idea as to whether you are feeding them the right quantities of food or not. For example; if they are not laying eggs, or they are laying eggs and the shells are quite thin, then you will probably need to be getting more calcium into their diets.

Remember, as long as the eggs are rich and huge and tasty, you are doing the right job!

If you can, you may want to keep an eye on the chickens when they are eating the oats. As we said before; while the answer to the question ‘can chickens eat oats’ is ‘yes’, if a chicken eats only oats, they are going to get sick. This is going to cause a ton of problems for you in the short term. Digestive issues can be tough to solve with chickens.

Remember, they are just like us and an imbalance in their diets can prove really problematic.

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  1. Pingback: Can Chickens Eat Zucchini? - Let's Talk About This! - ChickenMag

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