Is it possible to give raw potatoes to chickens and how to feed the birds properly
Wanting to diversify the diet of birds, many are wondering whether it is possible to give raw potatoes to chickens and chickens. After all, most vegetables are eaten fresh by layers. You can feed birds with potatoes, they gain weight faster from it. True, the tubers must first be boiled. It is forbidden to give raw potatoes to chickens. Such food will take a long time to digest and can lead to digestive upset.
Can I feed chickens with potatoes?
The main food for birds is considered to be crushed grain and compound feed. True, such products do not contain all the nutrients necessary for layers. Poultry farmers recommend using vegetables as a complementary feed. Potatoes are rich in minerals and carbohydrates. It can be given to chicks from 15-20 days of age.
Raw tubers
It is not recommended to give raw potatoes to birds. This is a very heavy and rough food, it is slowly digested, poorly absorbed. Layers may experience vomiting or diarrhea after eating raw potatoes.
Fresh potatoes are poorly digested in the digestive tract and can lead to atony of the goiter and stomach.
Boiled potatoes
Rejected small tubers can be used for bird feed. Before giving the potatoes to the layers, they need to be washed and boiled. Boiled potatoes are easily digested by the poultry stomach. True, it should be introduced into the diet of chickens gradually.
Chickens at 15-20 days of life are given at first 5-10 grams of boiled potatoes. By the age of one month, the dosage is increased. The norm for an adult laying hen is 40-50 grams per day. It is not recommended to give more of this feed.
When feeding, the emphasis is not on volume, but on variety. The more vegetables and grains a hen consumes daily, the better. Usually boiled potatoes are kneaded, mixed feed, crushed grains or bone, fish meal are added. True, chickens are more likely to eat whole boiled tubers.
Potato peelings
With great care, potato waste should be given to chickens. Green cleanings should be discarded immediately. After all, they accumulate a large amount of corned beef. This poison can provoke poisoning. The scrubs themselves are rough food. Birds usually refuse such food. Peelings without green spots can be boiled, chopped and fed to layers.
What impact can it have?
Boiled potatoes enrich broilers' diet with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, carbohydrates. Once inside, the potato works like an alkali: the acidic environment, in which most pathogenic bacteria and fungi develop, is neutralized.Potatoes improve the functioning of the digestive system, normalize metabolism, and enhance immunity.
Boiled tubers should be given to laying hens every day. Birds fed on such food gain weight faster, get sick less, and rush better.
Potatoes are considered an essential component in the diet of chickens in winter.
Advantages and disadvantages of including potatoes in the diet
This vegetable is considered a low-calorie food. 100 grams of potatoes contain only 77 calories. Most of all in potatoes carbohydrates (almost 85 percent). Protein is only 10.5 percent. This vegetable is not rich in vitamins. Root crops contain a little vitamin C and B. But potatoes are rich in macro- and microelements.
It is recommended to introduce a vegetable into the diet of birds for rickets, joint diseases, pecking, lack of calcium. Most of all potassium in potatoes. This macronutrient normalizes metabolism, improves the functioning of the nervous, muscular, and vascular systems. Calcium, phosphorus, silicon present in the composition go to the formation of bone and muscle tissue.
Potatoes are considered an alkaline food. It reduces acidity, normalizes digestion. If you feed chickens with boiled potatoes, they gain weight faster and become larger. Egg production increases in hens.
What potatoes should not be fed to chickens
For feeding hens, fodder potato varieties are used. They have a higher content of protein, minerals and carbohydrates useful for birds. True, if there is no feed, the chickens can be given food potatoes, that is, the one that people eat.
The poultry is fed tubers that are not suitable for seed purposes. Usually small or injured root crops go to feed chickens. The potatoes must be washed, rotten tubers are discarded, then boiled in a sufficient amount of water, otherwise you will get a paste.
In no case should hens be given root vegetables with green skin. Such potatoes are harmful to birds, both raw and cooked. Green potatoes contain a vegetable poison - solanine. This substance is found in high concentration in potato tops. Heat treatment has no effect on solanine. If a chicken eats green potatoes, it may experience diarrhea, vomiting, and cramps. It is better to refuse the use of low-quality feed, so as not to poison the poultry.
Do not feed chickens with sprouted potatoes. In potato sprouts, glycoalkaloids are formed, which affect the liver and nervous system of layers, and sometimes lead to their death. Sprouted potatoes can be used for bird feed, after removing all sprouts.
Laying hens are not given potato tops, unripe and young green tubers. Ripe potatoes can be fed to chickens, but only boiled. Potatoes that have been stored for a long time in the cellar have minimal solanine levels. This vegetable is best suited for bird feed.
