It’s getting cold outside as winter sets in and one way to help your flock deal with the cold temperatures is by giving them warm treats! Oatmeal is a common treat that comes to mind since chickens love oats and it is an easy thing for you to make for your flock. However, is oatmeal good for chickens? Some say oatmeal can be harmful to your flock’s health and may even cause death. Others say oatmeal is perfectly safe for chickens. So which is correct? Is oatmeal a safe and economical treat to give your homestead flock on cold winter days? Let’s find out!
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Is Oatmeal Safe to Feed to Chickens?
Yes! However, if you have done any research on giving oatmeal to your chickens you will know that there is controversial information about offering chickens oatmeal. There are blog posts, forums, and articles all about giving oatmeal to chickens. Some say that oatmeal is very nutritious and beneficial for your flock. Others say that is it harmful and un-necessary.
So, why the controversy? It’s because oatmeal can be both beneficial and detrimental to your flock’s health. Oats contain vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that promote good health in chickens. It also, like many grains, has anti-nutritional factors and some properties that can be harmful when consumed incorrectly.
Keep in mind that any treat you feed your homestead flock, including oatmeal, needs to be fed in moderation and at appropriate times. For more tips on properly feeding your flock treats, make sure you check out What Treats Can I Feed my Chickens Daily?, Feeding Your Flock a Homestead Diet, and Good and Bad Table Scraps for Chickens!
Let’s take a look at why we should use caution when giving our homestead flock oatmeal. Then I’ll highlight some benefits that oatmeal contains. Seeing the whole picture will allow you to make an educated decision on whether oatmeal is a good treat for your homestead flock.
The Dangers of Oatmeal for Chickens
#1. Beta-Glucans
Whole oats are a grain. Since a majority of a chicken’s diet is composed of grains, it would seem that oats could be a natural part of their diet too. However, all grains naturally have protection mechanisms that enable them to survive and grow when they are planted. Oats, rye, wheat, and other cereal grains contain beta-glucans.
Beta-glucans inhibit the digestion of nutrients. When in the digestive tract, beta-glucans bind with water and any other food that is in the digestive tract. This binding does not allow the digestive system to extract all the nutrients from the food stuff. It also creates a thick paste or gel in the intestines. An excess of food stuffs containing beta-glucans often causes chickens to have sticky droppings and diarrhea.
So, in relation to feeding oatmeal, you must realize that when you feed your chickens raw whole oats or oatmeal, they are getting some amounts of beta-glucans. A build-up of beta-glucans in the gut can negatively affect a chicken and can even cause death through obstruction.
Keep in mind, that almost every grain a chicken eats has some sort of anti-nutritional factor. Commercially formulated feeds compensate for these factors by including enzymes in their feed formulas. Enzymes help reduce the affect of the anti-nutritional factors and make the nutrients available for digestion.
Note: Whole oats are composed of about 2.3-8.5% beta-glucans. Oat bran contains higher concentrations.
#2. Diluted Nutrients
There is no doubt about it, oats can provide many great nutrients for chickens! However, when oats are made into oatmeal, a significant amount of water is added. This is nice for getting the most out of your money, since you can use a little bit of oats to make a lot of oatmeal. It is not so great when you look at the nutritional side of things.
Water basically multiplies the volume of the oats which just spreads out the nutrients. A chicken can eat less raw oats than oatmeal and still get the same amount of nutrition. So, when feeding oatmeal, realize that the nutrients contained in the oats is diluted through the addition of water. You don’t want to feed your flock a ton of oatmeal just so they can get the benefits from the oats.
#3. Not a Substitute
Anything other than a chicken’s regular feed should be considered a treat (unless you are using a supplement), that includes oatmeal. Since oatmeal contains anti-nutritional factors and has diluted nutrients, it should not be considered as part of a chicken’s daily diet. Oatmeal should be fed as a treat, not as a meal. That means it should follow the rules pertaining to treats.
On average, provide no more than 1 T. of oatmeal per chicken and don’t offer oatmeal on a regular basis. Ideally, don’t feed your flock oatmeal on a daily or weekly basis. Once or twice a month is safe for treating your flock to oatmeal.
Warm oatmeal is also not a ‘breakfast’ for chickens. Chickens do not eat ‘breakfast’, instead they munch on their food throughout the day, fueling their digestive system and gaining energy from the trickle of food. The closest thing you can get to feeding your flock a ‘breakfast’ is by heating up some of their layer feed and offering it to them free-choice.
#4. When Not to Feed
Since oatmeal is a treat, it should be considered more of a snack for your flock. Typically, oatmeal should not be fed as a morning treat. The best time to give your chickens oatmeal would be in the late afternoon or right before they go in to roost. This allows your flock to eat a majority of their daily ration before they fill up on a treat. Oatmeal is often used as a warm morning treat during the winter, however, I encourage you to use an alternative treat that would be healthier for your flock to start their day with.
#5. Detrimental Nutrition Content
Lastly, you will want to consider the nutrition content of oatmeal compared to other treats. Oats are high in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (which come from fiber and starch) provide a source of energy (heat) when they are metabolized. They are the first thing the body metabolizes during the digestion process and they are digested quickly.
This quick source of energy means that the body will not burn them for long periods of time. Thus, oats provide a quick burst of energy rather than a prolonged source of energy. The carbohydrates in oats is mostly starch, with the remaining amount coming from fiber. A majority of the starch in oats is resistant starch and slow digesting starch. The resistant starch is hard for chickens to digest. Chickens also have a hard time digesting fiber, especially since a majority of the fiber in oats is the soluble fiber called beta-glucans (we mentioned those earlier).
Oats also have a higher oil content than other cereal grains. The oil in oats is high in unsaturated fatty acids, which can be beneficial, but they are also a source of fat. Phytic acid is contained in whole oats as well. This acid can inhibit the utilization of some important minerals.
The Benefits of Oatmeal for Chickens
Now that we have covered the unhealthy side of oatmeal, let’s look at some of the benefits of feeding your flock oatmeal! Oats are not all bad for your flock! Oats, and thus oatmeal, contain lots of nutrients. They are high in many vitamins and minerals, plus they have a decent fat to carb to protein ratio.
- Minerals– whole oats contain minerals such as magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, iron, copper, and zinc
- Vitamins– whole oats contain vitamins such as choline, niacin, riboflavin, and thiamine
- Calcium– oats also contain some amounts of calcium, which is important for the digestion of acidic foods
- Nutritional Profile– whole oats are high in carbohydrates and protein but have a relatively low amount of fat
These components contained within whole oats allow them to provide some great nutritional benefits for your flock. I want to briefly elaborate on the fat, protein, and carbohydrates contained within oats because these three components play a big role in healthy winter treats. I’ll also list two other reasons why oatmeal can be healthy for the homestead flock.
#1. Fats, Carbs, & Protein
Since oats are mostly carbohydrates (in the form of starch and fiber) they provide a quick source of energy for a chicken’s body to use. At the same time, carbohydrates produce internal heat when they are digested. Oats also are low in fat, which means the body can burn the carbohydrates first without having to store too much fat.
However, the high fiber and resistant starches contained in whole oat’s carbohydrates make them hard for poultry to digest. A majority of the fiber contained in whole oats is in the form of beta-glucans. Beta-glucans bind with water and slow down the digestive process, which can be beneficial for allowing more nutrients to be metabolized from the food present. However, this binding can also be detrimental and cause blockages as we mentioned earlier.
Protein composition is where oats really stand-out among the other cereal grains. There is about 16-17 grams of protein in 100 grams of whole oats. This is a high amount when compared to the protein content in other cereal grains. Also, a majority of the protein in oats is avenalin protein. Oats are the only grain that contain avenalin protein. Avenalin protein is similar to the protein found in legumes, which are a source of high-quality protein.
In summary, the quick energy that oats provide can be beneficial for small periods of time, but they should not be expected to provide energy over long periods of time (for example, overnight).
#2. Antioxidant Rich
Whole oats also contain compounds that are high in anti-oxidants. Avenathramides are a type of anti-oxidant that is only found in whole oats. This anti-oxidant helps reduce inflammation. Inflammation can be a leading source of health issues in homestead chickens (just like for humans).
#3. Warm Treat
Probably one of the most common reasons homesteaders give oatmeal to their chickens is because it is a warm treat to offer during the winter. This is true and should not be overlooked! Warm treats are very beneficial during the winter. They help warm a chicken from the inside out. When offering oatmeal as a warm treat, the most important thing to consider is when you give them the oatmeal. Since oatmeal should be considered a treat, it should not be fed in the morning.
Oatmeal can be offered during the afternoon and evening though! If you offer it to them before they roost, the oats will provide some protein to digest over the course of the night. If fed during the afternoon, the carbohydrates in the oats will provide a source of quick energy for helping your chickens stay warm. The composition of the carbohydrates in oats allows them to be digested slower than some other grains whose carbohydrate composition is different. The fiber and starch in oats slows down the digestive process to some extent which can provide some internal heat as well.
Can I Safely Feed My Chickens Oatmeal?
Now you know the cautions to take when offering oatmeal as well as the benefits that it provides for your flock. So, what does all of this information mean for the homestead flock? Should you give your chickens oatmeal or not? As with most natural chicken keeping questions, the answer is not simple.
My personal opinion would be that you can offer your flock oatmeal as long as you acknowledge and take into consideration the health detriments that oatmeal can present. The main culprits that cause the harm are the beta-glucans contained in whole oats. They are hard for poultry to digest and cause a thick, gooey blockage in the intestines if present in large enough amounts. At the same time, they provide benefits such as slowing down the digestive process to allow more nutrients to be absorbed as well as providing internal heat (energy) when they are digested.
When weighing the cost and benefits, consider the nutrition your flock will gain from an oatmeal treat. How much nutrients will they really be getting once the oatmeal is boiled with water? I would say that you could safely offer oatmeal to your flock, at the most, every other week. However, I highly advise you consider other healthier treats to give your flock during the winter months.
Leafy greens and high protein treats are beneficial. Healthy options such as heated up chicken feed or quinoa could easily take the place of warm oatmeal on cold days. And don’t forget, afternoon and evening treats will benefit your flock more than early morning treats!
Healthy Diet = Happy Hens
Hopefully you now know what to consider when offering your homestead flock a bowl of warm oatmeal. They can certainly enjoy the special treat on occasion, just don’t make it a regular part of their winter diet. The health benefits provided by oats are definitely beneficial for chickens, but just like with all treats, they should be fed with moderation. The benefits are only beneficial when they do not cause other health issues too! There are also many other ways you can keep your homestead flock warm this winter without providing them oatmeal every week. Your flock will appreciate a variety of foods in their winter diet!
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by Alexa
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