Help! Our chickens have eaten foam...

[misspollysdolly]

Eek! DH just out checking what they've been up to, but it looks like they have been pecking at the foam on our slowly decomposing trampoline in the garden. If they have been actually eating it, what should we expect? Robust chickens with a gut of steel? Ill chickens? Or dead chickens ?

. Mine used to eat all sorts and I imagine more than I ever knew about. They do find foamy stuff and rubber and flaking paint irresistible.

I doubt they've eaten as much as you think. Remove the trampoline obviously and make sure they have access to fresh water and plenty of grit in case there are particles working their way through. Unless one was obviously ill, I wouldn't bother with the vet atm, just keep an eye on them.

Just imo obviously but I wouldn't panic if they still seem OK. Have you tried hanging greens or cabbage up for them to peck at?

I really wouldn't worry too much, mine find polysterene delicious but if it's small then they are able to pass it.

I would guess they will be OK though, I did lose one of mine which I suspect was polystyrene; the others were fine though.

Hi there,

I wouldn't worry too much about it - and you'll know by now if something is wrong. Chickens will have an exploratory peck at most things - mine peck at the straw bag when I'm mucking out their coop! My sussex ate a bit of flyaway polystyrene about two weeks ago and she's fine.

Make sure they have plenty of grit and water and keep an eye of the size of their crop to ensure everything is moving through ok.

There's a page on stuff that IS poisonous to chickens on the ChickenCoop website. www.thechickencoop.co.uk. Think it's in the Keeping Chickens - feeding or eating section. Helped me out!

Mine pecked the foam insulation out of my back door (much to the horror of the builders!). They survived. I think chooks are quite hardy when it comes to eating stuff!