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Quail need considerably more protein than chickens, and feeding them chicken feed is the most common mistake new keepers make. Quail chicks want a gamebird starter at roughly 26 to 30% protein, where chick starter typically carries 18 to 20%.

Get that first six weeks wrong and you see poor growth and weak legs that never fully correct. Get it right and quail are among the least demanding birds on a smallholding.

Quail Feed by Stage

Stage	Age	Protein
Gamebird starter	0–6 weeks	~26–30%
Grower	6+ weeks	~20–22%
Layer / breeder	Laying hens	~18–20%+, with added calcium

Coturnix quail, the commonest backyard type, start laying at around six to eight weeks, which is remarkably fast. That early maturity is exactly why the protein requirement is so high, the bird is building a laying body in under two months.

Can Quail Eat Chicken Feed?

Not as a proper diet, and the reasons differ by feed type. Chicken starter at 18 to 20% is simply too low in protein for quail chicks. Chicken layer feed is worse: around 16% protein, far below what quail need, and its high calcium level is actively harmful to chicks and to males.

If gamebird starter is genuinely unavailable, a high-protein turkey starter at 24 to 28% is a reasonable short-term substitute. Grinding standard crumble finer also helps very young chicks physically manage it, but it does not solve the protein shortfall.

Practical Feeding Notes

Quail are messy and wasteful with feed. They scratch and scatter, and an open dish can lose a surprising proportion of a bag. Feeders with a narrow lip or a cover pay for themselves quickly.

Water needs care with chicks. Quail chicks are tiny and drown readily in an open waterer, so use shallow water with marbles or pebbles in the base for the first couple of weeks. Laying hens need free-choice calcium, crushed oyster shell in a separate dish, and grit if they are eating anything beyond crumble.

What Do Baby Quail Eat?

Gamebird starter crumble, ground finer if the birds are struggling with the particle size. Chicks are extremely small at hatch and need feed within easy reach, spread on a tray or paper for the first day or two so they find it. Keep them on starter for a full six weeks rather than switching early.

What Do Wild Quail Eat?

Wild quail are largely seed eaters as adults, taking grass and weed seeds, waste grain, leaves, buds and berries, with insects making up a much larger share of the diet for chicks. That insect protein early on mirrors exactly why captive chicks need such a high-protein starter.

If you are managing land for wild quail, habitat matters far more than feeding, they need low cover for nesting and bare ground for dust-bathing and foraging.

Treats and Foods to Avoid

Quail take mealworms, chopped greens, and small amounts of fruit and vegetable scraps happily, and mealworms are genuinely useful during laying or moult. Keep treats modest so they do not dilute a high-protein ration.

Avoid	Why
Chicken layer feed as a staple	Too little protein, too much calcium for chicks and males
Avocado	Toxic to birds
Raw or dried beans	Lectins toxic until fully cooked
Anything mouldy	Mycotoxins
Salty or heavily processed food	Poorly tolerated
Open deep waterers for chicks	Drowning risk rather than a food issue, but a common loss

Quail sit alongside the rest of the poultry on a smallholding, see what chickens eat for the contrast in requirements. For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): chickens eat, ducks eat, geese eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Sheep are grazers, and a good pasture plus hay in winter covers most of what they need. They are among the most forage-efficient livestock you can keep, and a healthy adult sheep on decent grass often needs no grain at all.

There is one thing about feeding sheep that matters more than anything else on this page, and it is the reason you must never feed them minerals meant for goats: sheep are the livestock species most vulnerable to copper poisoning.

🔴 Copper: Sheep Are the Opposite of Goats

Sheep liver cells hold onto copper and excrete very little of it into bile, so dietary copper accumulates over months and years rather than passing through. That makes sheep the most susceptible farm species to chronic copper toxicity, and it puts them in direct opposition to goats, which need considerably more copper than sheep can tolerate.

The practical rule is simple and absolute: never give sheep a mineral, feed or supplement formulated for goats, and be careful with anything labelled generically for cattle. One of the most common causes of copper poisoning in sheep is accidental access to feed intended for another species. If you keep both sheep and goats, separate mineral stations are not optional.

Feed testing above roughly 25 ppm copper, or with a copper-to-molybdenum ratio over about 10:1, is considered potentially toxic to sheep. Worth knowing as well: accumulated copper can be released suddenly under stress, shearing, transport, extreme weather, which is why the disease often appears after a stressful event rather than during a feed change. Our guide to what goats eat explains the requirement from the goat side, and the contrast is stark.

Grazers, Not Browsers

Sheep graze close to the ground and prefer grass and short forbs, which is the opposite of a goat’s preference for shrubs and branches at head height. That difference is genuinely useful on mixed ground, sheep and goats compete far less than people expect because they target different vegetation.

It also means sheep pick up more parasites than goats do, since worm larvae concentrate in the bottom few inches of pasture. Rotating grazing rather than leaving sheep on the same ground is the main practical defence.

Pasture, Hay and When to Use Grain

• Pasture. The foundation. Mixed grass and legume swards suit sheep well.
• Hay. The winter staple. Quality matters, early-cut hay carries far more protein than late stemmy hay, see fodder types explained and feed storage.
• Grain. For ewes in late pregnancy and lactation, growing lambs, and animals in poor condition. Not for maintenance.
• Sheep mineral. Free-choice, and specifically formulated for sheep.
• Clean water. Always, and more than people expect in hot weather or on dry feed, see choosing a water trough.

Grain needs introducing gradually. A sudden load causes acidosis in sheep as it does in cattle, and in lambs a rich grain diet is a known trigger for urinary calculi in males. Late pregnancy is the point where nutrition matters most, a ewe carrying twins in her final weeks has a genuinely demanding requirement, and under-feeding then causes pregnancy toxaemia.

What Do Lambs Eat?

Lambs live on their mother’s milk for the first few weeks and start nibbling solids from around two weeks. A creep feed, offered where lambs can reach it but the ewes cannot, lets them start on concentrate before weaning and smooths the transition.

They are usually weaned at around 12 to 14 weeks. Growing lambs need better nutrition than adults, both more protein and more energy, so this is one of the stages where grain earns its place.

Plants and Feeds to Avoid

Avoid	Why
🔴 Goat or generic cattle minerals	Copper accumulation, the single biggest feeding risk to sheep
Sudden large amounts of grain	Acidosis; in ram lambs, urinary calculi
Mouldy hay or spoiled silage	Mycotoxins and listeria risk
Rhododendron, azalea, mountain laurel	Highly toxic, same family that poisons goats
Wilted wild or black cherry leaves	Cyanide compounds, more dangerous wilted than fresh
Lush legume pasture on an empty stomach	Bloat risk, fill on hay first
Copper-supplemented pig or poultry feed	Copper levels formulated for other species are dangerous here

For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (ruminants): cows eat, goats eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Cows are ruminants, and almost everything about feeding them follows from that. Their four-compartment stomach lets them convert grass and other fibrous forage, which humans cannot digest at all, into meat and milk. A cow’s diet is therefore built on forage: pasture in the growing season, hay or silage out of it.

Grain has a role, but a smaller and more careful one than people assume, because the rumen that makes cattle so useful is also easy to upset.

How a Cow’s Digestion Shapes Its Diet

A cow does not digest grass so much as host the microbes that do. The rumen is a large fermentation vat where bacteria and protozoa break down cellulose, and the cow lives largely on the products of that fermentation. Chewing the cud, regurgitating and re-chewing forage, is part of the same process.

The practical implication is that you are feeding the rumen microbes as much as the animal. That population adapts slowly to change, which is why any shift in ration has to be gradual, and why a sudden load of grain causes real trouble.

Forage: The Foundation

Forage	What it is	When used
Pasture	Live growing grass and legumes	Main feed through the growing season
Hay	Grass or legume cut and dried	Winter staple, and whenever pasture is short
Silage	Forage fermented at high moisture	Stored winter feed, common on larger farms
Haylage	Wilted forage, baled and wrapped	Between hay and silage, popular at small scale
Crop residues	Corn stalks, straw	Low-quality filler, needs supplementing

Quality matters more than quantity. Hay cut early is far higher in protein and energy than hay cut late and stemmy, and the difference is enough to determine whether a cow holds condition through winter without supplementation. Our guide to fodder types covers the distinctions in more detail, and feed storage covers keeping it in good condition once it is baled.

Grain and Concentrates

Grain, usually corn, barley or a formulated concentrate, raises energy density for animals that need it: dairy cows in peak lactation, cattle being finished for beef, and animals in poor condition. A dry cow on decent pasture typically needs none.

The risk is acidosis. Grain ferments much faster than forage, and a sudden large intake drops rumen pH sharply, which harms the microbial population and in serious cases the animal. Introduce grain gradually, feed it in divided portions rather than one large meal, and always keep effective fibre in the ration.

Water, Minerals and Salt

Water is the most underrated input. A lactating dairy cow can drink 30 to 50 gallons a day, and intake rises sharply in hot weather. Restricted water cuts feed intake and milk yield before any other sign appears, so a reliable supply matters more than almost any refinement to the ration. See our guide to choosing a water trough for sizing.

Cattle also need salt and trace minerals, usually offered free-choice as a block or loose mix. Requirements vary regionally because soils vary, selenium deficiency in particular is a known problem in parts of the US, so local advice beats generic advice here.

What Not to Feed Cattle

Avoid	Why
Ruminant-derived protein (meat and bone meal)	Banned in most countries under BSE control rules
Mouldy hay or spoiled silage	Mycotoxins, listeria risk from poorly fermented silage
Sudden large amounts of grain	Acidosis, potentially fatal
Lush legume pasture without care	Bloat risk, introduce gradually and never turn out hungry cattle
Wilted cherry leaves	Cyanide compounds, same hazard as for goats
Frosted or wilted sorghum	Prussic acid risk

Bloat deserves particular attention. Turning hungry cattle onto lush clover or alfalfa is a classic and avoidable cause. Fill them on hay first, and introduce rich legume pasture gradually.

The Bottom Line

Build the diet on good forage, treat grain as a supplement for animals that genuinely need the energy, never let the rumen face a sudden change, and keep clean water in front of them at all times.

For how cattle compare with the rest of the yard, see what most farm animals eat. For what goes into formulated rations generally, see the different types of animal feed, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (ruminants): sheep eat, goats eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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A rabbit’s diet should be roughly 80% grass hay, with a smaller amount of fresh leafy greens, a limited measure of pellets, and treats kept genuinely occasional. Hay is not filler, it is the foundation, and it is the single thing most new rabbit keepers under-supply.

The other thing worth correcting early: carrots are a treat, not a staple. The cartoon got that wrong, and a rabbit fed carrots freely is getting far more sugar than its gut is built for.

That core diet is the same whether you keep a single house rabbit or a breeding trio in a hutch, because rabbit digestion does not change with the reason you keep the animal. What does change is the ration for growing rabbits, and if you are raising them for the table that difference matters a good deal, so there is a dedicated section on it below.

Why Hay Comes First

Rabbits are hindgut fermenters with continuously growing teeth, and long-fibre hay is what keeps both working. The fibre keeps the gut moving, which matters enormously because a rabbit gut that stops moving is a genuine emergency rather than an inconvenience. The chewing action grinds the teeth down at roughly the rate they grow.

Timothy, orchard and meadow grass hays all suit adult rabbits. Alfalfa is different, it is a legume rather than a grass, much higher in protein and calcium, which makes it right for growing kits and nursing does but too rich as a permanent adult diet.

Greens, Pellets and Treats

Leafy greens supply variety, moisture and micronutrients. Good daily choices include romaine, cilantro, parsley, basil, dill, carrot tops and dandelion greens. Rotate several rather than feeding one in quantity, and introduce anything new slowly, over a few days, watching the droppings.

Pellets are useful but easy to over-feed. A rabbit that fills up on pellets eats less hay, and less hay means slower gut motility and worse dental wear. Measure them out rather than topping up a bowl.

On treats, the honest position is that rabbits do not need fruit at all. A slice of apple, a few blueberries or a small piece of banana is fine as a bond-building treat, but the sugar disrupts gut flora in quantity.

Do Rabbits Actually Eat Carrots?

They will eat them enthusiastically, which is not the same as them being good food. Carrot is a root vegetable and comparatively high in sugar, so it belongs in the treat category alongside fruit. Carrot tops, the leafy greens, are a different matter and can be fed freely as part of the daily greens.

This distinction matters more than it sounds, because carrots are the food most commonly over-fed to pet rabbits on the strength of a cartoon.

What Do Baby Rabbits Eat?

Kits nurse for the first few weeks and begin nibbling solid food from around two to three weeks old, typically starting with whatever their mother is eating. They should stay with the doe until at least eight weeks, because weaning too early causes digestive problems that can be fatal.

Growing kits benefit from alfalfa hay and a slightly higher pellet allowance than adults, since they need the extra protein and calcium. Transition to grass hay and adult pellet portions at around six to seven months.

What Do Wild Rabbits Eat?

Wild rabbits graze grasses and forbs through the growing season, and shift to bark, twigs, buds and evergreen needles through winter when green growth disappears. That winter browsing is why wild rabbits ring-bark young fruit trees, and why tree guards matter on a smallholding.

If you are trying to help wild rabbits, the most useful thing is generally to leave them alone. They do not need supplementary feeding, and putting out vegetables or pellets tends to concentrate animals, which spreads disease.

Foods That Are Unsafe for Rabbits

Avoid	Why
Iceberg lettuce	Almost no nutrition and high in lactucarium, which can upset the gut
Potatoes, corn, beans, peas	Too high in starch for a hindgut fermenter
Bread, crackers, cereal, pasta	Refined carbohydrate, disrupts gut flora
Avocado	Toxic to rabbits
Rhubarb and its leaves	Toxic
Onion, garlic, leek	Can cause blood abnormalities
Chocolate	Toxic
Lawn clippings	Ferment rapidly and cause dangerous gas build-up
Muesli-style rabbit mixes	Encourage selective feeding, the rabbit picks out the sugary bits

That last one is worth stressing: the colourful muesli mixes still sold for rabbits allow selective feeding, so the animal eats the cereal flakes and leaves the fibre. A plain uniform pellet is the better choice precisely because it cannot be picked through.

Feeding Pet Rabbits vs Meat Rabbits

The principles are identical, but the ration is not. A pet rabbit is being kept at a steady adult weight for years, so the goal is gut health and dental wear on a low-energy diet. A meat rabbit is being grown to processing weight in eight to twelve weeks, so the goal is efficient growth. Those are different jobs, and feeding one like the other causes problems in both directions.

	Pet rabbit (adult)	Meat rabbit (growing)
Hay	Unlimited grass hay, the bulk of the diet	Unlimited, but often alfalfa rather than grass
Pellets	Measured, ~1/4 cup per 5 lb body weight	Fed generously, often free-choice to weight
Protein target	Lower, around 12–14%	Higher, around 16–18%
Goal	Maintain condition for years	Reach ~5 lb live weight in 8–12 weeks
Main risk	Obesity and gut stasis from too few fibres	Slow growth and poor feed conversion

This is why alfalfa turns up as a good thing in rabbitry advice and a bad thing in pet-rabbit advice, and both are correct. Alfalfa is a legume, higher in protein and calcium than grass hay, which is exactly right for a growing kit and too rich as a permanent adult diet. If you read conflicting guidance online, this difference in purpose is usually the reason.

Growing and Buying Rabbit Feed on a Smallholding

Rabbits are one of the easier animals to feed partly from your own ground. They use a lot of what a garden already produces, carrot tops, brassica leaves, dandelion, plantain and comfrey, and they will take windfall greens that would otherwise be composted. Our guide to growing your own livestock feed covers which crops are worth the space.

Two practical cautions if you go down that route. Introduce anything home-grown gradually, because a sudden change of fresh feed upsets a rabbit gut faster than most livestock. And never feed lawn clippings: they ferment quickly and cause dangerous gas build-up, which is a genuinely common and avoidable cause of loss.

Hay is the item worth buying well rather than cheaply. Mouldy or dusty hay causes respiratory problems and will be refused, so storage matters as much as the purchase, see sorting out feed storage.

Rabbit Manure: The Side Benefit

Worth knowing if you garden as well as keep rabbits. Rabbit droppings are a cold manure, meaning they can go straight onto beds without composting first, unlike chicken manure which will burn plants unless it is aged. For a smallholder that turns the feed bill into something with a second return, and it is one of the better arguments for keeping rabbits near a vegetable plot. See making your own fertilizer for where it fits.

For the production side, housing, breeds, processing weights and the realistic downsides, see our guide to raising rabbits for meat.

For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (other livestock): pigs eat, horses eat, llamas eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Turkeys need more protein than chickens at every stage, and the gap is widest when they are young. Poults want a turkey or gamebird starter at around 28% protein, stepping down as they grow, where chick starter typically sits at 18 to 20%.

That single difference causes most of the trouble people have raising turkeys alongside chickens, and it is the reason chicken feed is not a straight substitute.

Turkey Feed by Stage

Stage	Age	Protein
Starter	0–8 weeks	~28%
Grower	8–14 weeks	~24%
Finisher	14 weeks to maturity	~18–20%
Breeder / holding	Adults kept over	~16%, restricted to avoid over-conditioning

Turkeys grow fast and put on a lot of frame in a short time, so under-feeding protein early shows up as poor growth and leg problems that do not correct later. This is a stage where getting the right bag matters more than saving a few dollars.

Can Turkeys Eat Chicken Feed?

As a short-term stopgap for adult birds, yes. As a plan, no. Chicken starter does not carry enough protein for poults, and chicken layer feed is worse on two counts, too little protein and too much calcium for growing birds.

If you cannot get turkey starter, a gamebird starter is the closest equivalent and often easier to find. In a genuinely mixed flock, an all-flock or flock-raiser feed at 18 to 20% with oyster shell offered separately is the usual compromise, accepting that poults are better served by a dedicated starter for their first couple of months.

Pasture and Foraging

Turkeys are capable foragers and will take insects, seeds, greens and grass across a run or pasture. On good ground in summer, foraging supplies a real share of their intake and improves both growth and meat quality. Heritage breeds tend to forage more actively than the fast-growing commercial strains.

They also appreciate height. Turkeys roost readily and will use perches, low branches or a raised bar, and providing that reduces squabbling and keeps birds off damp ground.

The Blackhead Problem With Chickens

This is the reason experienced keepers often house turkeys away from chickens. Blackhead disease (histomoniasis) is caused by a protozoan carried by the caecal worm. Chickens frequently carry it with few symptoms, while turkeys are highly susceptible and it is often fatal in them.

It is not a certainty, and plenty of people keep mixed flocks without incident, but the risk is real and rises on ground that has carried chickens for a long time. If you are starting out and have a choice, separate ground for turkeys is the safer default. Our guide to common diseases of farm animals covers the wider picture.

What Do Baby Turkeys Eat?

Poults get turkey or gamebird starter crumble from day one, and they can be slow to work out where food and water are, slower than chicks. Shallow feed trays, bright feed and sometimes a few chicks to demonstrate all help. Poults that fail to start eating in the first day or two are the ones that get lost.

What Do Wild Turkeys Eat?

Wild turkeys are opportunistic omnivores. Acorns and other nuts are a major autumn and winter food, alongside seeds, berries, green shoots, insects and the occasional small amphibian or reptile. Poults in particular eat heavily on insects, which supply the protein they need to grow.

Their diet shifts sharply with season, and in hard winters they rely most on whatever mast crop, acorns, beech nuts, is available. Feeding wild turkeys is discouraged in many places because it concentrates birds and spreads disease, so check local guidance before putting anything out.

For the rest of the poultry side, see poultry farming for beginners and what chickens eat. For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): chickens eat, ducks eat, geese eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Goats are browsers, not grazers, and that single fact explains most of what makes feeding them different. They prefer shrubs, weeds, brambles, twigs, bark and leafy branches at head height over short grass at their feet, and their diet should be built around that preference rather than against it.

The other thing to know early is copper. Goats need considerably more of it than sheep, and feeding sheep minerals to goats causes a deficiency that is easy to avoid and unpleasant to fix.

Browsers, Not Grazers

Cattle and sheep are grazers, built to eat grass close to the ground. Goats evolved on scrubby, mountainous terrain where survival meant reaching up for leaves, bark, twigs and woody plants that other livestock could not use. Given a choice, a goat will strip a bramble thicket before touching a good pasture.

This has two practical consequences. Goats are outstanding at clearing overgrown ground, which is why they are hired for exactly that job. And goats kept on grass-only pasture are being fed against their nature, which tends to show up as poor condition and a much higher parasite burden, because grazing at ground level is where they pick up worms.

The Daily Diet

• Browse and pasture. The foundation where available, ideally including woody and weedy growth, not just grass.
• Hay. The winter staple and the fallback whenever browse runs short. Grass hay suits most goats; alfalfa suits milkers and growing kids needing more protein and calcium.
• Grain or pellets. Fed to milkers, pregnant does and growing kids that need more than forage supplies. Most maintenance goats do not need grain at all.
• Loose minerals. Goat-specific, offered free-choice, not a block.
• Clean water. Constantly. Goats are notably fussy and will drink less if water is dirty.

Grain is where a lot of goats get into trouble. Sudden or excessive grain causes bloat and can trigger enterotoxaemia. Any change in ration should be introduced gradually across a week or more. For specific products and feeding by life stage, our goat feed guide goes into detail.

Copper: The Difference That Matters

Goats require substantially more dietary copper than sheep, and sheep are unusually sensitive to copper toxicity. Because of that, sheep minerals are deliberately copper-restricted.

Feed those sheep minerals to goats over any length of time and you produce copper deficiency: a faded, rusty-looking coat, a fish-tail appearance to the tail hair, poor growth, and reduced fertility. The fix is straightforward, use loose minerals formulated specifically for goats. Never assume a generic “sheep and goat” mineral is adequate, because those are usually formulated to the sheep’s lower tolerance.

Loose minerals are preferable to blocks. A goat’s tongue is not well suited to getting a useful amount off a hard block, and intake is difficult to judge.

Plants That Are Toxic to Goats

The “goats eat anything” reputation is dangerous here. Goats are actually fairly selective, but they will sample unfamiliar plants, and several ornamentals common in yards are seriously toxic.

Plant	Note
Rhododendron and azalea	Among the most common serious goat poisonings
Mountain laurel	Same plant family, equally dangerous
Yew	Extremely toxic, small amounts can be fatal
Wilted wild or black cherry leaves	Wilting is the danger, it releases cyanide compounds
Milkweed	Toxic and commonly present in pasture
Oleander	Highly toxic
Nightshades	Includes green potato foliage and related plants

Worth stressing: wilted cherry leaves are more dangerous than fresh ones. A branch that falls or is pruned into a goat pen becomes hazardous as it dries, so clear prunings rather than leaving them.

The Bottom Line

Give goats browse rather than just grass, good hay when browse is short, goat-specific loose minerals with adequate copper, and grain only where production genuinely demands it. Then walk your fence line and remove the rhododendron.

If you are choosing animals, see our guide to goat breeds for beginners. For how goats compare with the rest of the yard, see what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (ruminants): cows eat, sheep eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Pigs are true omnivores with a digestive system much like ours, which is exactly why feeding them is more regulated than feeding any other farm animal. The base of a domestic pig’s diet is a formulated grain-based ration, supplemented with vegetables, pasture and forage.

The part that surprises most first-time keepers is the law. Feeding food waste to pigs is restricted or banned in most of the developed world, and the rules are stricter than people expect.

What Pigs Eat Naturally

Wild and feral pigs root through soil for tubers, roots, fungi and invertebrates, and eat fallen fruit, nuts, acorns, eggs and carrion opportunistically. That rooting instinct is powerful and does not disappear in domestic pigs, which is why a pig on pasture will turn over ground with remarkable speed.

Used deliberately, that is a feature. Pigs are genuinely effective at clearing rough ground and breaking up compacted soil before cultivation.

The Base: Formulated Pig Feed

Commercial pig rations are corn and soybean based, balanced with vitamins and minerals, and sold by growth stage. Protein needs fall as the animal grows, which is the opposite of what many people assume.

Stage	Approx. weight	Typical protein
Creep / starter	Piglets to ~25 lb	20–22%
Grower	~25–125 lb	16–18%
Finisher	~125 lb to market	13–15%
Gestation	Pregnant sows	12–14%, fed restricted
Lactation	Nursing sows	16–18%, fed generously

Gestating sows are the one class that is normally fed a restricted amount rather than free-choice. A sow allowed to eat freely through pregnancy will over-condition, which makes farrowing harder.

The Food Waste Rules You Need to Know

This is the single most important thing to understand before feeding a pig anything from a kitchen. Feeding food waste, sometimes called swill, is the historic route by which serious livestock diseases including foot-and-mouth and African swine fever have entered national herds.

In the United States, the Swine Health Protection Act prohibits feeding food waste containing meat to pigs unless it has been heat-treated at a licensed facility, and a number of states ban feeding food waste to pigs outright. In the United Kingdom and across the European Union, feeding catering waste of any kind to pigs is banned, including waste from vegetarian kitchens, because of the cross-contamination risk.

Garden produce that has never entered a kitchen, surplus vegetables, windfall fruit, spent crops, is treated differently from catering waste in most jurisdictions, but the specifics vary. Confirm locally rather than assuming.

Safe Supplements and Forage

• Pasture. Pigs graze as well as root, and good pasture can supply a useful share of a grower’s diet.
• Vegetables. Squash, pumpkins, root vegetables, brassicas and surplus garden produce.
• Fruit. Windfall apples and pears, in moderation given the sugar.
• Acorns and nuts. Traditional autumn feed, though heavy acorn intake affects fat quality.
• Dairy. Surplus milk or whey, where local rules permit it.

Growing your own supplementary feed is a genuine cost saver at small scale, our guide to growing your own livestock feed covers which crops are worth the ground.

What Not to Feed Pigs

Avoid	Why
Any meat or meat-contaminated waste	Illegal in most places, serious disease risk
Mouldy grain or spoiled silage	Mycotoxins, pigs are notably sensitive to them
Raw or dried beans	Lectins are toxic until fully cooked
Large amounts of raw brassicas	Goitrogens affect thyroid function in quantity
Green or sprouted potatoes	Solanine is toxic
Excess acorns	Tannins cause digestive upset in large amounts

The Bottom Line

Feed a stage-appropriate commercial ration as the base, supplement with garden produce and pasture, and be scrupulous about food waste rules. Pigs will eat almost anything, which makes it entirely your responsibility to decide what they should.

If you are choosing a breed, see our guide to the best pig breeds for a homestead, and compare with what most farm animals eat across the rest of the yard. Browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (other livestock): horses eat, rabbits eat, llamas eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Geese are grazers, and that makes them unusual among poultry. Good pasture can supply the bulk of an adult goose’s diet through the growing season, supplemented with grain or waterfowl pellets. No other common farmyard bird gets as much of its living from grass.

If you arrived here about the wild geese on your local pond, skip to the section below, the answer is different, and it is mostly “please not bread”.

Geese Are Grazers

A goose has a serrated bill and a digestive system suited to stripping and processing grass, and a flock on good pasture will spend most of the day doing exactly that. Given enough decent grazing, adult geese can get through summer on very little supplementary feed, which is why they have historically been kept as low-input meat birds on smallholdings.

That grazing habit has a practical consequence: geese need grass, not just outdoor space. A bare dirt run does not work for geese the way it can for chickens, and short, young, actively growing grass is far better for them than long rank growth.

What to Feed Domestic Geese

• Pasture. Short, growing grass. The main feed from spring through autumn.
• Waterfowl or poultry pellets. A maintenance ration, increased as grazing declines.
• Grain. Wheat, barley and cracked corn, useful for finishing and for winter energy.
• Greens and vegetables. Lettuce, cabbage, chard and most garden surplus.
• Grit. Needed to grind fibrous grass, especially for birds without access to soil.

Geese eat a surprising amount in winter, when grazing disappears and their energy needs rise. Plan on feeding considerably more from late autumn, and do not assume last summer’s intake is a guide.

Niacin and Goslings

Like ducklings, goslings need more niacin than chicks do, and a deficiency shows up as leg weakness and joint problems in fast-growing birds. Waterfowl starter is the straightforward answer. If you can only get chick starter, supplement it with brewer’s yeast, as covered in our guide to what ducks eat.

One firm rule: never feed layer pellets to goslings. The calcium level is set for laying birds and damages the kidneys of growing ones. Goslings also grow extremely fast, faster than almost any other poultry, so getting the starter ration right matters more here than with chicks.

What Do Canada Geese and Other Wild Geese Eat?

Wild geese graze grasses, sedges and aquatic plants, and in agricultural areas they feed heavily on waste grain and young cereal crops, which is exactly why farmers find them a nuisance. They are entirely capable of feeding themselves year-round without help.

If you want to feed the geese at your local pond, the important thing is what not to use. Bread, crackers and chips are nutritionally empty and very filling, and in growing birds a carbohydrate-heavy diet is associated with angel wing, a permanent deformity where the wing joint twists outward. Cracked corn, oats, chopped lettuce, peas and birdseed are all better options.

Worth knowing too: heavy feeding concentrates birds in one place, which increases disease transmission and can stop flocks migrating normally. Feeding sparingly, or not at all, is genuinely kinder.

Foods to Avoid

Avoid	Why
Bread, crackers, chips, popcorn	Nutritionally empty, linked to angel wing in growing birds
Layer feed for goslings	Calcium level damages growing kidneys
Anything mouldy	Mycotoxins, geese are as vulnerable as other poultry
Avocado	Toxic to birds
Onions in quantity	Can damage red blood cells
Dried or raw beans	Lectins are toxic until fully cooked
Long, rank grass	Not toxic, but poorly digested compared with short growth

Geese pair well with other waterfowl on a smallholding, see our guide to raising ducks for the closest comparison. For how this compares across the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): chickens eat, ducks eat, turkeys eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Chickens are omnivores, and a healthy flock diet is roughly 90% complete formulated feed plus whatever the birds forage themselves, with treats and kitchen scraps making up the small remainder. The feed does the nutritional work; everything else is enrichment.

That 90% figure is the part people tend to get wrong. Scraps and scratch feel generous, but they dilute a carefully balanced ration, and the first thing to suffer is usually eggshell quality.

What Chickens Eat Naturally

A foraging chicken spends most of its day scratching through leaf litter and topsoil hunting insects, worms, grubs, seeds and green shoots. They are genuinely opportunistic, a free-ranging hen will take small frogs, mice and just about any insect she can catch.

This is why chickens do so well on pasture, and why free-range birds often show deeper yolk colour: the carotenoids come from greens and insects, not from the pellets.

The Base: Complete Feed

Formulated feed is designed to supply everything a chicken needs in the right proportions, and which one you buy depends entirely on the bird’s stage of life.

Feed type	For	Typical protein
Starter	Chicks, 0–6 weeks	20–24%
Grower	Pullets, 6–16 weeks	16–18%
Layer	Hens in lay, 16+ weeks	16–18% plus added calcium
Broiler / meat bird	Birds raised for meat	20–22%
All-flock / flock raiser	Mixed-age or mixed-species flocks	18–20%, calcium offered separately

The critical rule is that layer feed should not be fed to birds that are not laying. Its calcium level is set for eggshell production, and that much calcium is hard on the kidneys of chicks, growing pullets and roosters. In a mixed-age flock, feed all-flock and offer oyster shell separately so the laying hens can self-select.

For specific product picks, see our roundup of the best chicken feed for backyard flocks, and how to choose a chicken feeder for keeping it clean and off the ground.

Grit and Calcium: The Two Extras

Chickens have no teeth. They swallow food whole and grind it in the gizzard using small stones they have eaten deliberately, which is what grit is. Birds with access to bare ground usually find their own; birds kept on grass, in a run, or fed anything beyond pellets need it supplied.

Calcium is the other one. A laying hen puts a remarkable amount of calcium into shells, and layer feed alone is not always enough for a heavy layer. Crushed oyster shell offered free-choice in its own container lets each bird take what she needs. Thin, soft or shell-less eggs are the usual first sign that she is not getting enough.

Kitchen Scraps and Treats

Most vegetable and grain scraps are fine, and chickens are excellent at turning kitchen waste into eggs. Leafy greens, squash, cooked rice and pasta, oats, melon, berries and most cooked vegetables all go down well. Scratch grain is best thought of as a treat rather than a feed, it is largely carbohydrate and it will dilute the ration if it becomes a staple.

Keep the total from all treats to around 10% of intake. Beyond that you are meaningfully changing the nutritional balance of a ration that was designed as a complete diet.

What Not to Feed Chickens

Avoid	Why
Avocado (skin and pit especially)	Persin is toxic to birds
Dried or raw beans	Contain lectins that are highly toxic until fully cooked
Anything mouldy or rotten	Mycotoxins cause illness and can be fatal
Chocolate and caffeine	Theobromine and caffeine are toxic to poultry
Very salty or heavily processed food	Chickens tolerate salt poorly
Raw potato peel, especially if green	Solanine is toxic
Onions in quantity	Can damage red blood cells and taint eggs

There is also a legal point worth knowing: in many places it is illegal to feed meat or kitchen scraps that have been in contact with meat to poultry, under the same disease-control rules that apply to pigs. Check your state or national guidance before feeding anything from a meat-handling kitchen.

The Bottom Line

Buy the right feed for the birds’ life stage, offer grit and oyster shell free-choice, let them forage as much as your setup allows, and keep treats to roughly a tenth of the diet. That covers almost everything a backyard flock needs.

If you are just getting started, our guide to getting started with raising chickens covers the rest of the setup, and poultry farming for beginners goes wider. Browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): ducks eat, geese eat, turkeys eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.

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Ducks are omnivores. In practice that means a base of formulated waterfowl or poultry feed, topped up with leafy greens, peas, grains, and all the slugs, snails and worms they can find themselves. What they should not live on is bread, which is the single most common feeding mistake people make with ducks.

The other thing that separates ducks from chickens is niacin. Ducks need noticeably more of it, and ducklings that do not get enough develop leg and joint problems that are difficult to reverse. That one nutrient shapes most of the practical advice below.

What Ducks Eat Naturally

Left to themselves, ducks forage constantly. They dabble in shallow water for duckweed, algae and aquatic insects, strip seeds from grasses, and hunt slugs, snails, worms and beetle larvae across damp ground. A duck working a vegetable patch is doing genuine pest control, which is one of the better arguments for keeping them alongside a garden.

That foraging instinct is worth designing around rather than fighting. Ducks with access to grass and damp ground will supply a real share of their own protein in the warmer months, and they will eat slugs that would otherwise cost you seedlings.

What to Feed Ducks Day to Day

The base of the diet should be a formulated feed. Waterfowl feed is ideal; a general poultry or flock-raiser feed works too, with the niacin caveat below. Everything else is a supplement to that base, not a replacement for it.

• Leafy greens. Lettuce, kale, chard, cabbage and weeds from the yard, chopped so they are easy to swallow.
• Peas and corn. Frozen peas thawed in water are close to a universal duck favourite and a genuinely good treat.
• Grains. Cracked corn, wheat, barley and cooked oats, fed in moderation rather than as a staple.
• Protein. Slugs, snails, worms and insects, mostly self-collected. Mealworms are a useful supplement during moult.
• Vegetable scraps. Most non-toxic vegetable trimmings are fine, chopped small.

Ducks need water available whenever they are eating. They swallow by washing food down, and a duck with feed but no water can choke. A shallow, stable water source next to the feeder solves it, see our guide to choosing a water trough if you are setting up something more permanent.

Why You Should Not Feed Ducks Bread

Bread is not poisonous, which is why the myth survives. The problem is that it is nutritionally empty and extremely filling. Ducks that fill up on bread eat less of what they actually need, and the effect compounds fastest in growing birds.

In young waterfowl this shows up as angel wing, a deformity where the wing joint twists outward and the flight feathers splay sideways instead of lying flat. It is associated with diets too high in carbohydrate and too low in the nutrients growing birds need. Once the bone has set, it does not correct.

The same logic rules out crackers, chips, popcorn and most other bread-adjacent human snacks. If you want to feed ducks at a pond, thawed peas, chopped greens, oats or birdseed all do the job without the downside.

Niacin: The One Nutrient Ducks Need More Of

Ducks require more niacin (vitamin B3) than chickens do, and ducklings are the most vulnerable. A deficient duckling develops bowed legs, swollen hock joints, reluctance to walk and stunted growth. Caught early it is correctable; left too long it is not.

This matters most if you are raising ducklings on chick starter, which is formulated for chickens and is often short of niacin for waterfowl. The standard fix is brewer’s yeast, roughly a pound stirred through a 40-pound bag of chick starter. Feed stores also sell waterfowl-specific starter, which avoids the problem entirely and is the simpler option if you can get it.

Foods That Are Toxic or Unsafe for Ducks

The list is short but worth knowing, because several items are common in gardens and kitchens.

Avoid	Why
Bread, crackers, chips, popcorn	Nutritionally empty, linked to angel wing in growing birds
Citrus and mango	Can interfere with calcium absorption and cause digestive upset
Apple, cherry, peach and apricot pits	Contain compounds that release cyanide
Onions	Can damage red blood cells in quantity
Avocado	Persin is toxic to most birds
Tulips, lilies, irises, buttercups, poppies, sweet peas	Ornamental plants toxic to ducks
Anything mouldy	Mycotoxins are dangerous and sometimes fatal
Dried or raw beans	Contain lectins that are toxic until properly cooked

Apple flesh is fine, it is only the seeds that are a problem, so core apples before sharing them. The same applies to stone fruit: the flesh is safe, the pit is not.

Feeding Ducks Through the Seasons

Duck appetite tracks the weather and the laying cycle. In summer, foraging supplies a real share of their intake and you may find feed consumption drops noticeably. Through winter, foraging all but disappears and they will need more feed, along with a reliable unfrozen water source.

Laying ducks need extra calcium, usually free-choice crushed oyster shell offered in a separate dish rather than mixed into feed, so birds can take what they need. During the autumn moult, protein requirements rise while laying stops, and a slightly higher-protein feed or a few extra mealworms helps them regrow feathers.

If you are raising ducks for the table as well as for eggs, our guide to raising ducks for eggs and meat covers how those goals change your feeding plan, and duck breeds for beginners covers which breeds suit which purpose.

The Bottom Line

Feed a proper waterfowl or poultry ration as the base, make sure ducklings get enough niacin, keep water beside the feed at all times, and let the birds forage for as much of their own protein as your setup allows. Treats are fine in moderation, as long as bread is not one of them.

For how duck nutrition compares with the rest of the yard, see our overview of what most farm animals eat, or browse the full farm feed hub.

Other feeding guides in this group (poultry and waterfowl): chickens eat, geese eat, turkeys eat. Or start from the overview of what most farm animals eat.