Bread is now made from various types of ingredients. Each type of bread can offer chickens a different level of nutrition. With bread, some nutrients are available such as calcium, iron, vitamins B group, or many minerals.
In fact, most of the chickens would like to eat bread. They can eat different types of bread including white bread or wheat bread, stale bread, or fresh bread. But can bread be a source of food for young chickens? Or Can your baby chickens eat bread?
Can baby chickens eat bread?
Your baby chickens can eat all types of bread. There are many useful ways for you to feed them bread. However, there is a limitation on how much bread you should offer your little chickens.
What are the nutrition ingredients of bread?
Your baby chickens can get some nutritional benefits through eating any bread type as below:
Calcium
White bread can offer a high level of calcium. With around 4 medium slices of white bread each day, it would create above 30% of the daily amount suggested. Calcium is known as one of the most necessary nutrients for your chicken meal. Without calcium, it is difficult to make their bones stronger and healthier.
Fiber
Bread, especially wholemeal, contains a great source of fiber. It can not only help your baby chickens improve their digestive system but also levels of blood sugar and cholesterol.
Protein
Unfortunately, a low amount of protein is found in any type of bread. This is an essential factor for your chickens’ growth, renewal, and repair.
Iron
A suitable amount of iron is good for the immune system as well as the blood of your baby chickens.
Vitamins and other minerals
The bread offers a large number of vitamins and minerals such as B1 (Thiamine) or B3 (Niacin). Therefore, it can contribute to keeping your baby chickens away from serious diseases.
Is too much bread good for your young chickens?
It is possible for chickens to eat different types of bread such as white bread, wheat bread, stale bread, or fresh bread. However, with baby chickens, it is not a good idea to feed them with too much bread.
Further reading: Can chickens eat bread?
A high amount of nutrition in food is highly required for the sustainable development of your baby chickens. Meanwhile, bread contains very little nutritional value.
Here’s the list of protein proportions in some common kinds of bread:
- 3% for White bread
- 1% for Wheat bread
- 7% to 8.8% for Multi-grain bread
- 6% for Oat bread
Source: Bake Info
In other words, a single slice of white bread only offers from 2 to 3 grams of protein. Therefore, it can not meet the high demand for protein for your baby chickens’ growth.
In addition, sometimes when the bread you give becomes spoiled or moldy, it is not healthy for your baby chickens anymore. Any moldy food can create some mycotoxins which can poison your baby chickens.
How to feed bread to your baby chickens in the right way?
It has some effective ways to feed bread as a treat for your baby chickens. Here’s how:
Give them a warm bread mash in the cold weather for breakfast
Instead of feeding only bread, you can warm it up with hot water and mix it with other normal dishes.
Offer a mixture of bread and other safe foods
It is suitable for your baby chickens to have bread with some good veggies like zucchini, cucumber, and pumpkin. Seeds or grains are also good options for your feeding. Besides, you can crush eggshells and add it to this mixture so as to improve the level of calcium for your chickens.
Make special home-made bread for your chickens
Based on the nutrient needs of your baby chickens, you can make your own bread with appropriate ingredients at home. Therefore, you can make sure that the bread is good enough for their health and long-term development.
Some questions related to the eating bread of baby chickens
At what ages your baby chickens can eat bread?
After 8 weeks, it is a good time for you to start feeding your baby chickens some bread. At that age, a baby chicken is able to have quite the same amount of food as an adult one. However, you should keep them eating not too much bread per day.
What foods can poison your baby chickens?
- Chocolate (particularly Theobromine)
- Dry or raw beans
- Green tomatoes (Solanine)
- Green potatoes (Solanine)
- Moldy food
- Avocado pits (Persin)
- Apple seeds (Cyanide)
- Uncooked rice
- Coffee grounds (Caffeine)
What options are highly recommended to mix with bread for the young chickens?
- Clean water
- Bird crumbles
- Crumbled boiled egg yolks
- Crushed cheerios
- Corn
- Oatmeal
- Grits
- Quinoa
Final thoughts
In some aspects, bread can be seen as a low-nutrient food for your young chickens to eat. Nevertheless, it is better for you to use bread as a great treat for those baby ones.
To maintain their healthy growth, you should consider a suitable amount of bread to feed them every day. It is not a good idea to serve bread as a sole source of food or let your baby chickens eat it too much.
You can either add your bread to many other safe foods or make a special homemade bread for them. Therefore, you could feed your baby chickens with bread effectively.