Can chickens eat oatmeal?
Yes, but only a little: chickens can eat oatmeal. The University of Maryland lists oats among typical scratch grains, which are low in protein. Extension.org counts adding oats or other grains to a complete feed among common feeding mistakes, and Penn State Extension says scratch grain shouldn’t be fed at all, so we err on the side of caution.
How to serve it: raw, as part of the scratch
Kitchen scraps: The rules depend on where you live. US extension services allow small amounts of table scraps, no more than 10 percent of the daily diet (Oklahoma State). In the UK, it’s illegal to feed kitchen scraps to chickens, even pet hens (RSPCA, APHA). In the EU, Germany’s agriculture ministry (BMLEH) says kitchen and food waste must not be fed to laying hens.
Sources
- University of Maryland Extension – Feeding the Flock
- Poultry Extension (extension.org) – Feeding Chickens for Egg Production in Small and Backyard Flocks
- Penn State Extension – Successfully Raising a Small Flock of Laying Chickens
- Colorado State University Extension – Raising Poultry the Organic Way: Disease Control and Feeding
- Oklahoma State University Extension – Backyard Flock Production (AFS-8202)
- RSPCA – Keeping chickens as pets: how to care for backyard hens
- APHA (GOV.UK) – APHA warns not to feed kitchen scraps to farm animals because of disease risk (2017)
- BMLEH (German Federal Ministry of Agriculture) – Animal feed: frequently asked questions (kitchen and food waste, in German)
Last checked: November 2026