FAT BALLS

[sandy]

I 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.

[jo68]

hi adele


i was wondering the same as they are quite cheap to buy as a treat in the pet shops,lets hope somone knows


welcome to the forum


jo x

[Willow]

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?

[olpoll]

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

[wendy]

I would worry it could get into a fat ball in their crop and impact it.
Wendy

[Smallholder]

I would worry it could get into a fat ball in their crop and impact it.
Wendy

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 ;)

[sandy]

Thanks everyone for your replies though i have to admit I am still in two minds. Will probably just give them a few bits of the ball in the winter.

[4 french hens]

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

[Mo]

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.

[Smallholder]

Oh Mo... please lets not get back on the is it legal subject regarding scraps LOL Otherwise we will have another three or four pages of peoples opinions!

[wendy]

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

[Willow]

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...

[kate egg]

It's maybe because chooks are greedy and would eat the whole fat ball in one go if you gave it to them, whereas wild birds just take a dainty nibble and the ball lasts for days and days?

Just guessing! I think that if you just gave the chooks a little it would be absolutely fine

[Willow]

possibly Kateg, but the dainty eating is prob. relative to size.. the bigger the bird the bigger the chuck they take!!

[Mo]

And for wild birds it's a question of calories to survive the cold nights when they can't see to forage. And for a small bird it really is a long night.
Our hens are doing the unnatural thing of egg laying all year.

And they are greedy brutes so I wonder if they'd eat a lot and upset their tums