FAT BALLSFAT BALLSI recently offered my neighbour^s chickens a bit of wildbird fat ball. They acted like cats that had been offered catnip. As they loved it so much I wondered if it could possibly be bad for them but can find nothing on the internet and the local bird farm wasn^t sure. I would therefore be grateful if anyone can enlighten me. I now have 2 chickens of my own, 2 rangers I took off my neighbour as when he bought 6 to accompany his resident 3 the rangers were being bullied.
Well I gave mine half a fat ball last year.. they absolutely loved it and didn't seem to have any ill effects.. I didnt give them anymore mainly due to the amount of lard which I wasn't sure about.. mind you it doesn't harm wild birds does it?
"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid"
Albert Einstein ive heard every now and then a tub of cheap butter is good for them so i think a few fat balls especially in winter time would do them good
Thanks Andrew,
1 dog (ollie),1 rabbit (lucy),1 cockerel (young brian), 11 hens, 5 call ducks, 2 budgies, 20 goldfish (with pond), 200 gallons of tropical fish,.....and one very lucky wife (alison) . I would worry it could get into a fat ball in their crop and impact it.
Wendy http://www.busheyk9.co.uk
If you can't be a good example........ you will just have to be a horrible warning
Hi Wendy, The size of most fat balls, I would be very suprised if a hen could swallow a whole one lol.. I'm hoping we are talking about the same things? My only concern with regards to feeding them to hens, would be the fat aspect... being made mostly of lard it isn't something I would feed to my hens but each to their own ;) Best regards, Smallholder
Hi Adele. A few bits as a treat should be ok, but I personally would not give them too much as I'm not sure about wether lard is good for them or not. Best to be on the safe side I say. Hopefully there is someone who is a bit more expert on this than those of us who have replied so far.
Mike Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before.
If it's illegal to feed hens catering scraps is it OK to give them animal fat.
Personally, if it were legal I would just give them the fat off the joint - they love it and play at relay races and tug of war. But I wouldn't want to give them too much fat so there would be some over for the wild birds. People laugh at my bird table with nails sticking up. It's an attempt to stop the crows lifting the fat off, whole.
I didn't mean the whole ball, although I am sure they would have a bloomin' good try.
I meant a build up if they ate a lot in one go. Wendy http://www.busheyk9.co.uk
If you can't be a good example........ you will just have to be a horrible warning
It is a strange one isnt it? chickens forage for insects, grubs and anything else they can find the same as wild birds do.. their diet is realy not much different to the average sparrow / blackbird / thrush... So why would the lard content in fat balls be 'bad' for chickens when its considered healthy for wild birds?
This is a genuin question by the way because as I said in an earlier post, I only gave mine a bit because I was stumped by the lard issue... "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid"
Albert Einstein |
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